To Whom My Heart Belongs
by Stardust897
Summary: *Eyes fill up with tears* And so it ends. I really hope this doesnt seem like a sudden end to the story because Ive been planning this out for chapters in advance. I hope you enjoy the final act of To Whom My Heart Belongs.
1. Chapter 1

I looked out the window only to see the usual. Endless mounds of sand. A small wind picked up some of the dry stuff and whipped it along. I sighed. My friends this is what I like to call sheer boredom. My days are spent sitting at the window staring out at absolutely nothing. Ah, well something interesting was coming up for me though. My 16th birthday was to be in 2 days time. The coming of age in Clow is 16 so this was mildly amusing to think of.

A door opened off to my right. My eyes darted towards it. My tailor Philippe entered. Oh joy, more useless servants to deal with. Oh, did I neglect to make proper introductions? My name is Sheba crown princess to the land of Clow.

"Lady Sheba. Your gown for the celebration is ready"

"Well that's dandy but you might want to bring it here. You don't expect me to come to you do you? Hurry up now. I haven't got all day." (Even though in truth I did.)

"Oh yes," He scuttled over to the chair I was sitting on and laid the gown in my lap. He then bowed and took two steps back.

I ran my hand over it slowly. The fabric felt rather scratchy. Wool.

"Philippe, this dress is wool is it not? What do you remember about me and wool? Hmmm?

"Oh, ummmm…." The fool continued to make this sound as I watched. I did try to keep my temper in check. I truly did but when he continued to stare at me blankly I lost my temper.

"I'm allergic to it you buffoon! I would break out in hives if I wore this. Now I expect a gown of silk by my birthday understood?"

"Yes ma'am. I'll make you one immediately," Philippe said. He took the gown and scuttled out of the room as quickly as humanly possible. I'm not sure if I heard him well, but on his way out I do believe I heard Philippe mumble "brat" maybe I was mistaken. I don't know. I went back to staring out the window out into the endless sand dunes.

A servant helped me to fit into my silk dress. It was of the most beautiful purples you could ever hope to see. It really made my jade colored eyes stand out even more than usual and make my short cropped blond hair look even more silky. I looked stunning if I do say so myself. In fifteen minutes I would be appearing at the ballroom in front of the entire court and an assortment of Papa's "friends". Just more of Papa's political buddies he wanted to keep happy so they didn't rebel. I knew all of his tricks. In a matter of 2 years I would assume the crown. I had to learn the pros and cons of the business.

I walked briskly down the hallway towards the ballroom. I could already hear the chatter. It must be deafening in the ballroom. The doormen saw me and made a signal towards the announcers place. With a grunt the massive doors were opened and the crowd hushed. I walked with my head held up high and looked forward. The announcer's voice echoed along the enormous hall.

"Her Highness, Princess Sheba of Clow on her 16th birthday!"

I smiled at the entrance and allowed my father the come to take my hand and lead me the middle of the floor.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY PRINCESS!"

I had strict orders from Papa to mingle. His mingling meant talking to all of the "friends" he had invited. After an hour of laughing at non-funny jokes, chatting endlessly about the weather, and saying 'Pleased to make your acquaintance' about a billion times I finally got some alone time. I looked out the window to the desert with outlining of the setting sun. The sand blazed red. Then out near the edge of the horizon I saw a brown cloud. Wait, clouds aren't brown!

The sandstorm swept over the palace in an instant. Shrieks and yells filled the ballroom. I felt as if I was floating on the outside and watching inwards. I swiftly found out that I _was_ floating. The screams sounded more and more in the distance, then absolute silence. What was happening? Little did I know that as I drifted in the nothingness that was around I was in that my life was about to be turned upside down. I tried to remember the tales my mother had told me when I was young to keep myself awake. The one that came to mind immediately was the one of the witch Loraine. She plagued the Clow royalty since the beginning. On the 16th birthday of the members they had to go on a perilous journey. I had never given a second thought that my mother was giving a veiled warning. Now I understood that was to tell me the truth of what was happening. Oh my elements what was going to happen to me now?


	2. Chapter 2

_Ugh. My head feels like someone's been using it for target practice at the hammer throw. _ I sat up and looked around. I seemed to be in an alleyway. I stood up and walked towards the end of the alley, only to be blocked by a wall like person.

"Hey sweetie. Where you goin' dressed like that. Some high-class party?" The person in front of me was a bulky man with a scraggly beard and cruel eyes. He looked like a bum.

"Hey, why don't you come with me and we can go somewhere and have some fun." Something told me that his concept of fun was not the same as mine. I side-stepped him and started to walk away.

"No thanks. I must be on my way." That's when he grabbed my arm and started to pull me towards him. I shrieked. Pulling away as hard as I could I yelled and scratched and bit, but his grip was like iron. There was no way out for me. What was I going to do?

"Now, now sweetie. I ain't going to do nothin' bad to yer. Just come with me for a little bit now lass."

_Thwack. _ The sound of a punch landing on someone face. I looked up and saw a flash of blond hair.

"Leave her alone. Got it?" my savior said flatly. He then proceeded to pick me up and leap out of the ally. I immediately began to fight his hold. How was I to know that he didn't plan to do something himself?

"Hey! Don't squirm so much! I'll drop you, and you don't want to be dropped from this height," he said. I looked down and saw that we were more or less flying. He just stopped to leap of the top of a building every once in a while.

"Don't worry, I won't hurt you. You're safe now that you're with me."

He had a gentle voice and I relaxed almost instantly. I looked up at him as we continued to jump around the buildings. He had short, neat pale blond hair. He had a kind of round face. Boyish, I guess you would call it. His eyes were purple, and so were his eyebrows, which totally freaked me out. Two swords were strapped to his back and two were strapped to his sides. He turned and smiled down at me. He had perfect white teeth.

"Where exactly are you taking me? I demand you tell me now!" I said

"Oh, I'm taking you to the inn. My friends are there they'll want to meet you." He answered good-naturedly. "See we're here." We had landed in front of a small building with the word Inn printed neatly on a sign above the door. He put me down and then opened the door.

"Ladies first" he said. I walked in without giving him a second glance. The main room was large and square, with a large fire sitting in the middle of the fireplace. I looked around and saw about six people sitting on the wooden chairs.

"Hey guys. I have someone I'd like you to meet," the boy said.

They all turned around to face me. They all had these intense eyes. It was intimidating. I must have looked really scared, because the boy who had saved me said:

"Don't worry, we won't bite. I guess I never introduced myself. My name in Ivan. I'm from Kalay. 17 years old."

A pretty blue haired girl smiled gently at me and said, "Pleased to meet you, my name in Mia of Imil. 19 years old."

The boy sitting directly to her right turned his head and gave me a grin. "The name's Isaac pleased to met'cha." He had a head of messy gold blond hair that stuck up in random spikes. "I'm 19 years old too."

"Garet's the name. Me and Isaac are from Vale." He had spiky copper colored hair. He pointed to the girl sitting to his left. "She's Jenna and the both of us are 19 years old."

"I can make my own introductions thanks," Jenna retorted. She had flame colored hair and a nice smile. "Nice to meet you. I'm from Vale as well."

A deep voice spoke up from the opposite side of the room. "My name is Piers. I'm from Lumeria. I pleased to meet you." He had light blue hair and was very muscular.

Then I saw him. My prince. (At least the guy I had always envisioned as my prince.) He had longish brown hair. It hit his shoulders and was pulled into a pony-tail. He had the deepest brown eyes I had ever seen. They were like looking into the purest amber.

"My name is Felix, Jenna's brother and I'm from Vale as well. It's a pleasure meet you." He smiled at me gently. My heart melted instantly. I don't know if you have ever met a gorgeous guy but this guy would fit the description perfectly. He was hot.They looked at me expectedly. I guess I was supposed to tell them my name.

"Oh, um M-m-my name is Sheba. I'm from Clow. 16 years old. It's nice to meet you too."

"Where's Clow? I've never heard of that city. Is it from another continent?" Isaac asked.

"I turned to look at him. "Well I've never exactly heard of Vale or Imil of Lu-whatever–you-call-it either." I retorted. He blinked twice and just opened his mouth and shut it a few times.

"Well, where am I going to sleep tonight? I guess I should go and pay for a room tonight. Good day to you all." I stood and walked briskly towards the counter. Ivan followed behind me.

"Hey, Sheba. Don't worry about it. We'll help you get home. And don't worry about the bill, I'll take care of that," He said it gently and calmly. Then laid down some coins before I could even get to my purse. I'd never seen coins like those before.

I pushed aside his money and put down my own. "Thanks, but no thanks. I can pay for it on my own." He picked up a coin and examined it.

"Never seen this type of currency before. You said you were from Clow right?" He pursed his lips and thought for a moment. Then fished around inside of his pocket and pulled out a scroll. He unrolled it and showed it to me.

"Do you recognize any of these places?" I looked and didn't recognize anything on the map.

"No I don't recognize anything." Ivan frowned.

"How did you get into the alley?" It shocked me to figure out that I didn't remember. It's like someone mind-wiped me. I really didn't remember anything before the alley. Nothing other than my name and where I was from. I had to answer and for some reason I felt I had to tell him the truth.

"I really don't remember."


	3. Chapter 3

I woke up facing towards a dusty ceiling. _Where in the world was I?_ _Oh, yeah. _ I remembered now. I had stayed with that group of travelers. The one with that blond boy. What was his name? Oh yes, Ivan. And my prince, Felix. I turned to look at the other girls I had spent the night with. Jenna and Mia. They weren't there. I stood and began looking around. I wandered over the door that led into the boy's room. They were chatting.

"Nicely done Ivan. That girl you brought with you yesterday is really cute," Isaac said.

"Guys stop it. How do you know she's not listening right now? (Ivan has really good intuition) She is ok looking I guess," Ivan said softly. Even though there was a wall separating us I could somehow imagine his face. Blushing just a little as he looked out the window. ……Now that I think about it, I've never once been called pretty, or cute. The servants back home just said that I resembled my mother. I don't remember her very well since she died when I was really little. (I was 3 years old.) My father had all the pictures of her destroyed so I don't remember what she looked like. If she was pretty or not. I guess she must have been really pretty. (My dad was the kind of guy that would appear in a nightmare, with an ax, chasing you through a dark forest. Yeah, I said that. You can quote me on it too.)

"Hey, what are you doing?" a voice behind me said. I jumped hard then turned. Jenna and Mia were looking at me.

Mia smiled kindly at me, "Don't worry about it. When I first joined up with the boys I used to listen in on what they were saying just to find out what they thought about me." Jenna nodded.

"Me too," she said "It's just so tempting isn't it? You can't help but wonder what they're talking about."

I just looked at the ground for a few moments then swiftly walked out of the room.

"Whatever." I know I was being a brat. They were just trying to be nice so I'd feel welcome. But I was acting like they were horrible people. They were really nice. I should try harder to become friends with them.

I entered the living room and sighed because I got a huge amount of stares due to the fluffy purple dress I was wearing. Jenna materialized behind me.

"We really need to get you some traveling gear or you'll get mugged for sure," she sighed.

"You're right, Jenna we have to go shopping for her immediately," Mia murmured her agreement.

Thirty minutes later, Jenna, Mia, and I were walking towards the armor and weapon shop. We entered and the clerks smiled and said in unison "Welcome my dears!" which really creeped me out. Mia started looking at dresses and under armor along with the circlets and array of scarves they had on display. Jenna was searching through the weapons.

"Hey Sheba! Do you know any pyenergy?" Jenna asked. I stared at her.

"What in the world is si-nee-gee?" I asked her.

"I supposed she doesn't she's from an entirely different world," Mia said

_Oh, right. I just thought she was being ignorant. She is from another dimension though. _ I jumped and turned toward Jenna.

"That really wasn't a kind thing to say Jenna," I muttered. Jenna turned toward me with her eyes wide open.

"What did I say?" she asked innocently

"You said I was ignorant."

"I never said that. I thought it. How did you know what I was thinking?"

"I don't know. It just sounded like you were speaking. Like inside of my head." Her eyes widened. Jenna turned toward Mia, who had been watching the entire thing.

"Oh, dear. I do believe we have a new adept on our hands," Mia smiled at me in a kind of _I know something you don't know_ way. I flinched.

"Now there's no way around it. We have to get you some stuff. Plus….. I do believe that Ivan has an apprentice."

Not to long after that, they had outfitted me. I was wearing a cream colored top with a mini skirt of the same color. Underneath that I had on black under armor. The shorts came below where the dress ended so I was completely covered. Then I had on gray thigh length tights. A scarf was wrapped around my neck and fell over my shoulders like a cape. The boots I had on were knee length. Instead of buying a circlet, I used my crown that was like a circlet but it held some type of wind power. Mia said she could feel it in the jewel. Since my blond hair was short as it is they didn't bother getting a hair band. We headed back to the inn.

As the three of us walked in the boys who had just had breakfast were packing up. They turned to greet Jenna and Mia, and then turned to look me over. They really did have these hard, intense stares. Finally someone said something. It was my prince.

"You look really nice. It suits you," Felix said. I blushed.

"Thank you Felix." He smiled at me kindly. He had perfect white teeth. Everyone chimed their agreement. The boys all bumped Ivan to the front. Maybe they wanted him to get a better look since -next to me - he was the shortest. When he got there he looked at me and blushed.

"Um… You look good," he murmured.

I smiled at him. "Thank you." For some reason I felt really happy he liked it. Almost happier than when Prince said he liked it.

_Almost._


	4. Chapter 4

We walked down the road leading away from town. I couldn't help but look back. _Goodbye civilization, hello wilderness._ It turned out that I was going to be Ivan's apprentice. Earlier today the group was talking outside and I overheard them talking about my odd power. I didn't think anything of it until Ivan came up to me and said:

"I'll only teach you if you're willing to learn. We won't force you into anything." I had said that I would get back to him on my decision. To tell the truth, I wasn't to keen on this whole adept thing. It seemed important, but I don't know why, but… maybe this was a way to get close to the prince. I had to take the chance.

"Hey Ivan?" He turned away from Isaac, who he had been talking to.

"Yeah?"

"Can I talk to you alone?" I gestured toward Isaac, who was watching with a suppressed smile. Ivan smiled and stopped walking for a moment to let Isaac get ahead.

"What's up Sheba?" he asked.

"You know that thing, um… pyenergy. Are you still willing to teach it to me?" I was squirming around pretty bad. Why did I always feel nervous around him?

Ivan smiled and touched my arm gently. A shock ran through it. "I'm willing to teach you, but I want you to know that learning isn't at all easy. First time you try you'll have a headache all day."

"That's ok. I'll try really hard. Even if I have a headache so bad that I feel like fainting." Ivan smiled at me. He had a nice smile. It wasn't hard to find either, he always looked like he was about to smile.

"Okay. Well next break we have I'll start with the basics. Okay?"

"Okay." I kind of expected him to walk on ahead and talk to Isaac but he continued to walk in step with me.

"You know, you don't have to be afraid. I know that you've had a hard time but don't worry we'll help you out." He looked at me with concerned eyes.

"It's not that I don't think that you'll help me. … It's just that, I don't understand what's going on at all. I'm just so confused. I've lost half of my memories. I just don't get it."

"Relax. We're here to help. We won't let anything happen."

"I just wish I had a friend here. I feel so alone," I said softly.

"That's not true Sheba. You do have a friend," Ivan answered. I looked at him skeptically.

"Really? Who?"

"You have me of course." My eyes widened. It's kind of the truth. He knew more about me than the others…but of course I didn't want the chance of being hurt so I put up that invisible wall.

"We're not friends. I don't know anything about you, and you know nothing about me." With that I walked ahead just fast enough to not to be walking beside him anymore but not be walking with anyone else.

"Hey guys! I think we'll take a break here," Isaac called out.

"Whew, Finally! I didn't think we would ever stop. My feet are killing me. I don't think that I could take another step!" Mia groaned.

I didn't say anything. I just looked out toward the grassy hills. They reminded me painfully of the sand mounds back in Clow. The only difference is these ones were green.

"Hey, Sheba. You ready to start off the lessons while Mia and Jenna make lunch?" Ivan quietly said behind me. I turned. His eyes looked kind of sad for a second, and I regretted what I had said. Then they went hard again. Maybe I was mistaken.

"Sure, Ivan. I'm ready. Let's go."

"Okay then. We'll start off with the basics. First of all we need for you to build concentration. We'll start by making a small whirlwind. Now close your eyes and think of a tornado or sandstorm. Anything that is a really big wind. I'll be reading your thoughts so don't stray or I'll know what you're thinking. Even the private stuff," He smiled deviously. I frowned.

"Ok." I shut my eyes and tried to picture a tornado. The high winds, the blowing trees. How boring, right? Well, it didn't take long for my thoughts to stray. I started to think of my prince. I totally forgot that Ivan was reading my thoughts. Ivan let out surprised gasp. My eyes flew open.

He was giving me this really funny look. Kind of embarrassed, confused, and shocked, all at the same time. At first I didn't understand why he was looking at me like that, then I remembered that he was reading my thoughts. I felt my cheeks heat up.

"You… like...Felix…?" Ivan muttered just loud enough for me to hear. I tackled him clamping my hand over his mouth.

"You can't tell anyone! You have to promise me that! Please!" I was desperate. If Prince was to find out, my life was over. This was awful, but not as bad as it was going to get. Garet let out a whoop.

"Nice going Ivan! I didn't know you had it in you!" Garet laughed along with all the other guys. Prince was just staring at me with a surprised look on his face. Jenna waltzed up to Garet and smacked him on the side of his head, hard. It took me a few seconds to figure out what they were laughing about. Then I realized I was sitting on Ivan's chest. They must have taken it the wrong way. My face was probably turning purple from embarrassment and rage.

I got off of Ivan, mumbled "Sorry" then took off running through the grass. Tears of rage stinging my eyes. Why did that have to happen? Right in front of Prince too! I finally tripped and fell down where I sobbed my heart out.

I didn't bother showing up for lunch (I wasn't hungry in the first place). That was a mistake, because Mia and Jenna came looking for me. I was curled up hugging my knees to my chest and looking out over the waves of grass.

"Sheba we're about to leave. Are you ready to go now?" Jenna voice was quiet and comforting, but I was still upset.

"We can wait a little longer if you're not ready to go," Mia said softly. I looked up. Their eyes were full of concern.

"No, we should go ahead and leave. We're trying to get to Tolbi as soon as possible right? We should leave now." I stood up and we began walking back to the camp.

"Those boys were being jerks. I wouldn't worry about them if I were you. Garet will apologize. Even if it kills him. He's really a good person," Jenna tried to smile, but I could tell she was really mad at what Garet had done. Probably more than I was.

"Thanks." I smiled at Jenna. She smiled back.

"Oh! You might want to talk to Ivan. He's really upset. He's completely blamed himself for this mess. We tried to get him to tell us why you tackled him, but he said that he promised you that he wouldn't tell," Mia said softly. She looked at me with her ice blue eyes. I nodded.

"I'll talk to him. Don't worry." We returned to the camp site. They turned to look at me. I held all of they're gazes the way royalty should. But when it came to Ivan, I just couldn't look him in the eye. When I glanced back at him, he looked really depressed. Mia was right. He was blaming himself for this even though it was my fault.

I need to talk to him. _Now_.

"Hey Ivan, can I talk to you in private?" I called.


	5. Chapter 5

My heart was beating so fast I thought I would faint right then and there. While I knew that this needed to be done, I couldn't help but be nervous.

"Ivan−−" I started. He cut me off before I could finish my sentence.

"I'm sorry. This is my fault. If I had just shut up, then this wouldn't have happened. If I hurt you, I apologize." Ivan's head was bowed and his fists were balled up by his sides. Right now, all I wanted to do was give him a big hug, but something held me back.

"Ivan," he kept looking at the ground "Look at me," he looked up. His purple eyes were so sad. Like a begging puppy. "It's not your fault in the least. It's mine. Please don't blame yourself. I don't want you to do that. Okay?"

He looked at me quietly. Then he gave me a shaky smile and nodded.

"I'm still really sorry," He murmured.

"Don't be." I touched the side of his face gently. He cocked his head to the side my hand was on and sighed. I smiled. He was like a little kid, then he looked at me. His eyes were really mischievous.

"No worries, I didn't tell them about your crush, I'll be willing to help you with your romance," He snickered and winked coyly at me.

"It's no laughing matter!"

"I understand that. I'm serious about helping you. I want you to be happy, that's all." I couldn't help but feel happy. Maybe I had made a friend here after all.

We stopped when the sun finally dipped below the horizon. It became dark and cold fast. Within minutes I was shivering in my loose dress. I felt a cloak fall on my shoulders. I looked up to see that Prince had given me his brown cloak. It was really warm and thick. I couldn't help it, I started blushing.

"Thank you, Felix."

"Your welcome. I wouldn't want you catching a cold or anything," he answered. I started to blush harder. I turned to look at Ivan, he had a kind of irritated look on his face, it vanished as soon as he noticed I was looking at him. When he looked at me he forced a smile and gave me a thumbs up. I smiled back, a bit uneasily. Why did he have that look on his face? Did I do something to make him mad? Oh, well, it really didn't matter. I'm sure it was nothing. Right?

I walked along the quiet beach. The moon was shining brightly, down on me and for some reason it felt really warm. Like the sun. When I looked at it, I felt it tugging at me. I reached for it and suddenly a shadow appeared and whispered_, "Who will you choose?" _Then the scene changed. Someone was standing on the edge of a river. For some reason I was really glad to see that person, I rushed to that person and was standing beside him, and all my fears melted away.

I woke up and saw that I was back on the hard ground. Yup, I Sheba, Princess and heiress to the kingdom of Clow, had been degraded to sleeping on the ground with a pack of odd commoners. _How the mighty have fallen,_ I thought. I sat up and decided to take a short walk. The others were still asleep. I shouldn't bother them. I started to walk along the path we had trekked. Pretty soon I had walked to a river's edge.

I was enjoying the cool night air, when I heard a low growl from behind me. I turned around slowly to see a huge blue-gray wolf, staring me down. This was a minor problem. Ok, it was a major problem; this thing could shred me to ribbons before I make it more than 5 feet. So I did the most natural thing, the reckless thing. I turned and ran as fast and could, screaming at the top of my lungs. The thing pounced on me and pinned me down with one enormous paw.

So this was how I was going to die. Mauled by a wolf. The others would find a pieces of me scattered on the ground. And the last person's name that I thought that I would think of came to mind, and that's the name I called weakly.

"Ivan… help me…," I called out. The wait of the wolf was crushing the oxygen out of me. I was gasping for air now.

"Ivan…." With a sickening _shlick_ sound the wolf split into four pieces. Four swords were twirling magically in the air beside Ivan's head. He turned to look at me, his face drawn with concern.

"Sheba! Are you ok? Sheba!" Was the last thing I heard, then, everything went dark.

I tried to sit up. My stomach felt like someone had been jumping up and down on it. It hurt to breathe. I was lying beside something warm. I turned my head to see that I was beside Ivan.

"You're awake. How are you feeling now?" He asked quietly.

"Like someone's been using my stomach for a punching bag," I managed to croak.

"Can you talk?"

"Yeah."

"Good. Then would you care to explain why you were out walking around at _night_, without someone with you?! You have no experience with fighting monsters, you have no offensive pyenergic powers yet, and you can't even hold a mace properly. What were you THINKING?! YOU COULD HAVE BEEN KILLED!!" I winced. Ivan was really mad at me. I didn't think he would be that worried about me.

"I'm sorry. I didn't want to bother anyone, you were all sleeping. I just wasn't sleepy."

He didn't answer; he just stood up and walked away. I watched as he went to talk to Mia. They spoke for a little while, Mia glanced my way a few times, nodding. Then Ivan disappeared over a hill. Mia began walking towards me smiling.

"Hey, you feeling any better? I still need to use Ply on you or you'll still be sore." Mia murmured in her soft voice.

"A little better. But what's Ply?"

"You'll see." She shut her eyes in concentration, and started to glow blue. A tiny fairy appeared above me and smiled. She waved her wand and white sparkles floated down towards my stomach. She twirled around and continued to make sparkles fall. After some time, she stopped and smiled once more before disappearing. Mia opened her eyes and smiled.

"Better now?"

"Yeah, that fairy was so cute!" Her eyebrows shot up.

"You could see her? That proves that you must have a large reserve of power in you. You just need to hone your skill."

I was quiet for a little while. Then I finally worked up the courage to ask Mia the question that was nagging me.

"What did Ivan say?"


	6. Chapter 6

The clouds drifted across the ice blue sky lazily. I wish that I could be a careless cloud. Unfourtunaly I was to annoyed and sad to worry about the clouds too much. What I had asked Mia to tell me, I kind of regretted. Maybe it's because it made me feel guilty or depressed.

"_Are you sure you want to know what he said?" Mia asked quietly._

_"Well, yeah, kinda. It wasn't that bad was it?" I answered._

_"He said that what you did was stupid and reckless. He said that he was really worried that you were dead. So, no, it wasn't that bad. He also asked me to come and check up on you, because I'm the healer in the group. He walked off without answering your question, right? In other words that's a guy's way of saying that he's worried sick about you."_

So he wasn't mad at me because of what I had said, just what I did. That depressed me even more. This was the first time anyone had ever worried that much about me. Papa didn't really give a hoot about what happened to me half the time. The day I broke my leg, he was told and what did he do, you ask? He sent me one of the letters he has his staff write for him!

The sunlight suddenly became dimmer. I looked up to see that black clouds were now swirling around in the sky that I could have promised was blue no more than a few seconds ago. Whatever. It probably wasn't something I should worry about.

Maybe I should practice that pyenergy the Ivan had been trying to teach me. Maybe it would calm me down. Ivan had taught me so far that I had to sit down and concentrate on a big wind to start that whirlwind he had started so I sat down and thought of nothing but a big wind.

Maybe I was imagining it but the wind did start to pick up. It was just a breeze at first but it kept getting stronger and stronger. I opened my eyes to see that the clouds overhead had started to swirl into a more defined shape. A funnel, more of them started to pop up everywhere in the sky. They all touched down onto the ground, this was getting a bit out of hand. It needed to stop.

_Stop, now. _ I commanded the tornadoes. They just kept swirling. Uh-oh. I heard some panting from behind me. I turned to see the others coming over the embankment. Ivan was in the lead

"Oh, crap. That's a big one," Garret yelled. He turned to look at Ivan, "You think you can stop this?" Ivan just stared all the funnel clouds in dismay.

"Sheba! W- what were you doing just now?!" Jenna's voice called. I turned towards her and found that she was right behind me. The roar of the wind had softened her voice.

"I was just concentrating on a big wind like what Ivan said that I should do!"

"YOU TRIED TO USE PSYENERGY WHEN YOU WERE UPSET?"

"I WASN'T UPSET!"

"THEN WHY DID YOU LOOK LIKE YOU WERE ABOUT TO CRY? YOU SHOULD NEVER USE PSYENERGY WHEN YOU MENTALLY UNSTABLE, IT GETS OUT OF HAND!"

Well I didn't know that until now, and these storms were about to rip the country-side apart. I looked franticly around towards Ivan. _Ivan what should I do? _ The storms all started heading in his direction. They were all hunting him.

He jumped out of the way of some, but the other's just kept coming after him. There was no way he could dodge all of them at once. He would be killed.

My reckless side took over. I dashed away from Jenna and ran towards Ivan. I jumped in front of him and right in the path of the tornadoes. I spread my arms wide.

"STOP!" The tornadoes all stopped and swirled around and around before stopping and lifting of the ground and disappearing into the sky. The sky cleared immediately. I started to collapse unto the ground. I had a massive headache. Everything just hurt. Soft arms wrapped around me and kept me from falling all the way down. I looked up to see Ivan's smiling face. I smiled back.

"I'm sorry about the wolf," I murmured before closing my eyes. The last thing I heard was: "You're forgiven."

_Thank goodness._

My head was pounding like a drum that someone won't stop hitting. I sat up and looked around. The sky had turned an awing gold and red. Winds were whispering in the distance words that no one could understand. I needed to find the Ivan and the others. I stood up and tried to walk, only to start to fall over again. A hand much larger than my own grabbed my hand and pulled me upright.

"Be careful. You'll be unstable for a few hours and that headache will last days," Felix said calmly beside me. "You put out a lot of pyenergic power to stop all of those tornadoes. Even if I was a wind adept I don't think I could have done that on my own. You're really strong, even after that you can actually stand up. Normal adepts can't do that."

For some reason even though Prince was paying me a compliment, I really didn't care. I just wanted to find Ivan and make sure he's okay. Maybe I was still recovering from that headache and I wasn't quite right in the head, because I pulled away from Prince's grip and went racing off into the meadow. Tripping and slipping and nearly falling over from exhaustion and all.

When I finally made it to the top of a hill, one that I could see the entire valley on top of, I turned a full circle trying to spot the gang. They were by the river from earlier washing something. I raced down towards them. The wind was still stronger than usual, my hair was whipping in the wind and my dress was flying around my legs.

"Hey! HEY! You guys, over here!" I jumped up and down trying to get their attention. Piers turned around first. By that time I was wobbling from standing up to long. I started to fall over… again. Piers caught me (because he made it over there first) and steadied me.

"You seem to be rather energetic for someone who just came out of a coma," He laughed good naturedly. I wobbled a little and smiled at him. The others were smiling and laughing and shaking their heads.

"You're the first person I've seen come out of a pyenergic coma that fast and have that much energy," Isaac said sighing. "You caused a lot of people to worry, you know. You should be more careful" I smiled and nodded.

"Sorry about that…." I started to fall over for the umpteenth time that day. Isaac caught me.

"Your still weak, though. You need to rest for the next day. We'll stick around here for a little while. That o.k. with you Felix?" He had followed me over the hill.

"Yeah. As long as she gets some rest, I'm fine with it."


	7. Chapter 7

My eyes fluttered open to see the blue sky staring me back in the face. Sunlight was dazzling gold; it occurred to me that the sun here was more gold, than yellow like on Clow. That was really surprising. I'd have to ask Isaac about that later, he seemed to know the most about this world. I sat up and looked around and saw the other's starting a fire for… Oh, whatever meal. I'd slept so much over the past few days I didn't really know what time it was anymore, nor did I care.

I stood up and didn't fall over this time, which meant that I was better! I walked up to Piers form behind and calmly said "Hey, there." He jumped about a foot in the air. Turning around to see me standing there and smiling at me he sighed.

"D-d-don't do that, y-y-you'll give me a heart attack."

"Sorry. What's for… umm, lunch…?"

"Fish stew. We've had to have it for the past few days because that's the only thing around here to eat, other than the occasional edible plant. Which we will also be having because there's nothing else that's other than that to eat."

"Sorry about that. Where are we exactly?"

Another voice answered my question. "Just south of Tolbi, in fact only about an hour's walk from here." Garet said flatly. I turned to face him. He met my gaze calmly.

"Fine, then I suppose that we're pretty close to the goal you guys were trying to meet."

"No where close. We're only going to Tolbi to look for clues. The palace there has a decent sized library."

"What exactly _are_ you guys looking for again?"

"None of you business, squirt," Garet smiled at me.

"If your going to drag someone somewhere, at least tell them where and why your going there!"

"Don't give me that squirt. You're new here; you have no right to say that. Understand me?" I glared at him for a second then turned and walked off. There was no reason to argue with the big oaf anyway. It would just cause me problems. I kept walking along until I got to the place that Mia and Jenna we're cooking lunch.

"Hey can I help?" I said softly, as not to scare them. It didn't work.

"EEEEP! S-S-Sheba, you're up!" stuttered Mia.

"Yeah I'm up and I feel great! Can I help with lunch?"

"Um, well, I think we're okay, so you don't really have to help. We'll be fine on our own." Mia was acting awfully suspicious. She seemed to be really nervous about something. _ Well time to test out my pyenergy!_ I used mind read on her.

_This is bad. I hope she didn't hear us talking. The last thing we need to happen is for her to be involved in this. She reminds me so much of _her_ it might make Ivan and Felix nervous if they knew she knew why we're really going to Tolbi… --_ I stopped the mind read.

"Okay, then I'll leave you two alone to work. I wouldn't want to get in the way." I left the area and walked off through the grass to find Ivan practicing with his sword. As I was looking at him I had this funny feeling. Like I had watched him practicing before (this was my first time). I guess you would call it déjà vu.

Ivan began to balance the bladed side of his sword on his index finger tip. It must have taken a lot of concentration, but I decided to ask him a question.

"Hey Ivan, can I ask you something?"

"Yeah, is something the matter?" He continued to balance the sword perfectly.

"Have you ever felt like you've met me before the alleyway?" His eyes widened and the sword tipped forward a little. Sinking into his finger.

"OW!" He squeaked. I dashed up to him and looked at it. A good sized cut was oozing blood. I sighed and pulled out a herb, squeezed the leaf and a small drop of oil formed which I rubbed on Ivan's finger. The bleeding started to stop.

He looked at me and said softly, "Why are you asking me that all of a sudden?"

"It's just that… Well, when I looked at you training, I got this weird feeling, like I've watched you before. But I haven't, ever."

His eyes widened till the closely resembled saucers. He opened his mouth to say something and then;

"Lunch is ready everyone!" Called Jenna's voice.

"I guess we better head over and get something to eat," he grabbed my hand and pulled me along. "C'mon!"

When Ivan grabbed my hand, I got this jittery feeling. It nearly made me forget what I had asked Ivan to tell me.

**Nearly.**

"Thanks for the food! It was delicious!" Isaac said after finishing two bowls of fish stew and a huge helping of green mush. (I'd give it a real name, if I could recognize what it looked like. Ugh.)

I had spent the entire time just picking at my food partially because I wasn't hungry, partially because I hadn't quite figured out what it was. Mostly because I was trying (fruitlessly) to figure out why Ivan, Mia and the others were suddenly acting tense around me. It didn't make much sense. Maybe I would get a better response if I asked the entire group.

"I was wondering… Why exactly are we going to Tolbi?" My hopes of a good reaction were dashed when everyone's face either went pale or their eyes widened.

Felix turned to me, his eyes were really sad. I wonder why.

"We're going to look for clues… to see if we can find someone."

"Felix!" Mia face was pale and she shook her head.

"Mia, she has a right to know. We're dragging her there." Mia shook her head again, a kind of warning. Felix looked at the others and they all shook their heads quietly.

"Fine then. When the time's right, Sheba, I'll tell you."

_Why is everyone hiding something from me?_

We walked up to the town gate and stopped. The guards that were standing there looked fierce. I flinched when they all turned and looked at me, they did something rather surprising, they bowed to me. Why? These weren't the guards at the Clow palace. They had no reason to bow to me, what was going on?

"Lady Sheba. Faren is in town visiting with Iodem, I'm sure they'll be delighted to see you again," one of the guards said.

"Oh, yes," said guard two, "After the Venus lighthouse disaster we looked all over for you but you were no where to be found. Faren will eagerly await the homecoming of his daughter."

The faces of my traveling companions went ashen. Even Garet who always seemed to have a decent tan. More confusion as the guards led us through the town and towards the palace. We passed street vendors, a fountain where people were tossing in coins (and the coins were magically multiplying) a dice game and a slot game. All of this was quite interesting, but I was more worried about meeting the man who was supposed to be my father. This man named Faren. What was happening here?

We walked into the palace and were led into a large room. Two men were sitting down at a table and conversing while eating a large meal (I'm still disoriented and not quite sure what time it is). They turned to look at us when we entered. Jaws dropped like dead flies. For a second no one spoke, and then one of the men with a thick blond mustache met my eyes and squeaked, "Sheba…?"

Life became pretty complicated after he said my name.


	8. Chapter 8

He reached out to touch my hand, I stepped back. He kept reaching I took another step back. Who was this guy?

"Sheba, my sweet, sweet daughter," He said.

"W-who are you?" I asked softly backing off as fast as I could. His face went pale.

"Don't you remember, I'm Faren. I'm your father!" His voice was so pained, but I had no idea who this person was. Tears were in his eyes. "I've waited for so long to see you! You disappeared after the lighthouse. We looked everywhere for you! Everywhere!"

"I'm sorry," I said softly. "But who are you? You say you're my father but I've never−"

He turned away from me. Mia put a hand on my shoulder and led me to the door. I took one look back at him, he was turned towards the table and grasping it with both hands, his shoulders slumped in defeat. I let Mia lead me away from the room.

We left the palace behind soon after that incident in the dining room. It turns out whatever they were looking for, wasn't in the information sections, so that was that.

As soon as we made it out of the city, Ivan decided to test my pyenergy out again. He had been teaching me for some time now, and I was getting pretty good at it by now. After we stopped for a break, (Mia complained her feet were hurting again) Ivan took me by the arm and led me out towards a meadow.

"We've been training for some time, now I think we should test you to see how far you've come."

"Okay," I said. "Fine with me, let's go!"

I shut my eyes and let myself relax. I turned and focused my mind on Ivan. A sharp wind picked up and tornadoes appeared in the sky. I raised my hand towards to the heavens, to make sure the tornadoes were under my control, the pointed in the direction the Ivan was in, only to find out that he had moved. Shoot.

He appeared behind me and whispered in my ear, "First rule of battle, don't ever let your enemy out of your sight," He slammed a wind slash into my back.

I whirled around and let out blast of tornadoes towards him. He dodged them and moved in swiftly with his swords. What I was about to do was really foolish since I wasn't in complete control of my plasmas yet. I let an ark of lightning wrap around my arm then turned it into a whip and wrapped it around Ivan's waist. His eye's widened.

I let out a scream of effort and forced even more electricity run through towards him. He yelled in pain as it hit him, hard. (Huh, maybe I was in control after all.)

Ivan winced as soon as he tried to stand up and flashed huge grin my way.

"Not bad! You've certainly gotten a lot better, but it's still not enough to defeat me!"

I took no notice of the comment. I sprinted forward using the wind as an accelerator. Wrapping myself in lightning I slammed into him as a lightning arrow, he fell back. I cut loose sending arrows of lightning formed from the center of my palm after him. That was my one mistake. I focused so much on sending attacks to the front. Two of his swords, the ones that always floated around on wind currents (that's what he told me they did) moved to the front and deflected all the arrows, sending them flying in odd directions.

While he was busy doing that, I came from behind turning two lighting arks to double blades around my arms, I slashed them across his back. He flew forward fifty, or so feet. We continued this crazy dance around each other, slashing and attacking every chance we got.

He turned towards me. His eyes were hard set, like the way they looked like in the alleyway, when he punched that guy.

"That's enough, I didn't plan on using this on you until later but you leave me no choice." Ivan's eyes started to glow purple, there was a flash. Then nothing, he was still standing in front of me.

I charged towards him and hit air. He wasn't there?!

"Wha−?!" He slammed into from behind me. I skidded across the meadow. I turned to him.

"What kind of dirty trick was that?"

"It's called the Jupiter Illusion. I get inside your head and make you see what you think is going on while I can get behind you before you can figure it out! And it's not a dirty trick, it's a form of pyenergy, one day I'll teach it to you."

We began charging toward each other for a head on attack when a spire of solid stone rose out of the ground blocked both of our paths.

"ENOUGH! Can't you guys see what's going on around you?! You've caused a massive storm!" Isaac's voice carried over the meadow. The wall of stone melted back into the ground.

Ivan and I looked up to see that it was raining and lightning was flashing all around us. I was completely out of breath, and I suddenly felt completely exhausted.

Ivan looked at me and winced. He grabbed his side where a huge gash was. He collapsed onto his knees, and then fell over, face first, into the dirt.

My shoulder felt like it was on fire, blood was oozing out of a large wound. I swiftly followed Ivan's lead and collapsed onto the wet ground. Thunder boomed across the meadow. Then I lost consciousness.

_An arm was encircling my body. Something sweet was being poured into my mouth. I opened my eyes just a crack to look to see who it was. It was Felix. He was pouring a potion into my mouth, one little sips worth at a time._

"_You put on quite a show there. You and Ivan really went at it didn't you?"_

"_I'm sorry for worrying you…" I sat up and looked around. "Where's Ivan?! Is he ok? He had that huge gash on his side." He was hurt badly, I could feel it._

"_Don't worry about him; just focus on us, ok?"_

"_Us? What do you−" He pulled me towards me suddenly. I was leaning against his warm chest._

"_We're all alone now." He smiled down at me and I looked into his deep brown eyes. We leaned closer and closer and…_

"SHEBA!!"

I sat up with a start and my forehead slammed into Jenna's. I winced and rubbed it tenderly, while at the same time looking at Jenna, and as it turns out, Mia.

"What exactly were you dreaming? You kept muttering Ivan and Felix's names." Jenna stopped talking and then started giggling, she smiled deviously.

"Oh, don't tell me that you have a crush on both of them?" Mia smiled and laughed. I felt the heat rush to my face, I was blushing really hard.

"I don't like both−" I stopped. I turned around and saw Isaac. He face was ashen. Jenna and Mia had stopped their giggling.

"Isaac," Mia said startled, "What's the matter?"

"It's Ivan. The wound on his side isn't healing, no matter what we try! I don't think he'll pull through."

Oh elements no! This couldn't be happening. Not to Ivan!!


	9. Chapter 9

The field was absolutely silent, except the wind blowing across the grass. The scenery was so fitting.

Ivan lay on a blanket. His breathing was faint, and came in short ragged gasps. I rushed to his side, elbowing Garet out of the way.

"Ivan! Ivan, I know you can hear me! Please just open your eyes, please!"

His eyes remained closed. I could feel my heart beating so fast in my chest, like it might explode. I took his hand in mine. As soon as his hand fell into mine, the world disappeared in a flash of light.

_I walked out of the inn door towards the center of town. The townspeople were so happy, chatting and laughing cheerfully. I skipped along, humming a song. Then I saw the bonfire. People were dancing to music played by the musicians, circling the bonfire. I wanted to join in too, but I didn't have a partner. _

_A hand fell on my shoulder. I turned to see _him_ at my side. He extended his towards me and bowed like a prince._

_"Would you honor me with this dance, Sheba?"_

_"I would be honored, Ivan." I took his hand and he led to the circle of dancers. We joined in and started to dance to the music. Step, step, twirl, back step, step, step, turn. We continued this. Suddenly his eyes took a mischievous glint. He shut his eyes for a split second, and I felt pyenergy circling us. We were hovering above the ground, we moved till we were hovering above the bonfire. The dancers stopped to look at us and cheer us on._

_"Whoooooo!" they called._

_We kept dancing; I was now facing away from him. Ivan's hand was on my waist, I held up one hand for him to grasp as he led me. Step, step, step, back step, twirl, dip. We kept dancing hovering above the fire. We turned to face each other again. I looked into his eyes. We dance closer, and closer. Our foreheads touched. The music stopped, we stopped dancing and floated down to the ground. He wrapped his arms around me and hugged me tightly._

_"I'll always be here for you, no matter what," Ivan whispered._

_"I know," I answered._

Everything came rushing back to me. I was still grasping Ivan's hand. I looked at him. His breathing was even more shallow than it had been. That scared me even more.

I griped his hand, for some reason it didn't feel like that I was in control of my body. It felt more like someone else had taken over for me.

"Ivan!" said the voice that wasn't quite mine. This voice was far more forceful. "Ivan, you have to open your eyes! You have to wake up! Remember that night at the bonfire dance? We were dancing and you cast hover? After the dance you said 'I'll always be here for you, no matter what'! You hugged me and whispered that to me! Don't go against that vow! The only way for you to always be there for me is to stay alive! Ivan, open your eyes!!"

His eye fluttered for a second. Then they opened partially.

"The bonfire? Yeah, that was fun. I still remember what I said. I'll always be by your side. Don't worry, I'll be fine. Just a little tired is all. Maybe I'll take a little nap…" Ivan was fading again.

"No! No napping! Stay awake!" I screamed. I looked at the others. "We need to get him to a sanctum."

They were just staring at me with shocked expressions. "What are you waiting for? He'll die otherwise!" That snapped everyone back to reality.

"Right! I'll go and get some blankets!" Mia said and scurried off. I looked at the others as they quickly dispersed camp. I turned to Isaac.

"I'll go ahead and take him into town. I'll use a windstorm to carry the two of us to a sanctum!"

"Got it. And Sheba?"

"Yeah?"

"You owe the other Sheba an explanation," _Yes, I thought, you do!_

My other self nodded, she took on a thoughtful expression.

**"I do owe you an explanation"** she said in her mind to me.

"**Yes, you do. But let's deal with Ivan first!" **I answered.

**"Sorry. I can't stay awake long. Just long enough to get him to a sanctum."**

**"Who are you exactly?"**

**"I'm you of course." **The other me answered.

"!" (The winds from the four corners, answer my call) We called. A tornado appeared and picked us up.

"You really are the old Sheba. This isn't magic. You don't need an incantation!" Isaac laughed despite the situation.

"I know that. It just sounds cooler," We called as we sped towards the town.

We landed in front of the sanctum, starling some of the townsfolk. I (I was finally in control of my body again) opened the sanctum door. Ivan (who was still floating on a small whirlwind) went in first. I followed.

The sanctum was dimly lit. The healer was in the back, sitting behind a stone desk. I dashed to the healer, please let him be one of the very nice ones.

"Master Healer! My friend is on the verge of death, none of us know how to help him, but I know you can! We'll pay what we owe you, but I had to leave my friends behind to bring him here! I promise I'll pay, but you have to save him!

The master healer, took one look at Ivan, turned and strode to the wall, pressed a stone, and a hidden door appeared. He motion for me to bring Ivan in. I did.

I stood by, and watched as he laid Ivan on a bed. He shut his eyes and concentrated. I felt a well of healing pyenergy come from the old healer. He transferred it to Ivan.

Ivan moaned softly, then turned over. I walked to the bedside and listened to his breathing. It was more relaxed and calm. I realized that he was sleeping peacefully. I smiled and touched his forehead. Tears sprang to my eyes.

"Ivan, I'm so sorry. This is my fault, if I had more control of my pyenergy, this wouldn't have happened," I was sobbing now. "You really scared me, you know. I thought for sure this would be the end of you. I'm just so glad, that you'll be okay! You're my best friend, and I don't know what I would have done without you. Thank you. Thank you so very much!" I sobbed.

Ivan turned over towards me. He opened his eyes and looked at me kindly.

"Hey, don't cry. You'll depress me. You're my best friend too."

"You were awake the entire time…?"

"Yeah. You told me to stay awake, didn't you?" He smiled at me.

"I didn't. Sheba did."

"You're Sheba. Oh, I'm confused. Just stop sobbing so that I can sleep!"

"Fine! I'll leave since you don't want me around!" I snapped.

"It's not that I don't want you around, I just need to sleep," he muttered.

"Okay." I murmured. On the spur of the moment I leaned down and kissed his cheek.

"What was that for?" He asked.

"I just felt like it." I turned to leave the room only to find that the entire group was standing at the door. They were all looking at me with surprised looks.

Isaac was the first to speak. "Are you…?"

"I'm not the Sheba you−" There was a flash. Huh? What had I been talking about?

"What was I talking about just now?" Isaac looked at me funny.

"Stop joking around Sheba, you know perfectly well what you were talking about."

"No I'm serious. What's going on?"

_Hamma quietly watched on as the scene unfolded in front of her in the misty screen. Sheba had been talking with Isaac about the other Sheba._

_"I'm so sorry Sheba, but this has to stop. I can't have you remembering about your past just yet."_

_She cast a mind wipe pyenergy._

_"One day, I'll give you back your memories, but first you need to find out if who you love. Then I'll decide whether I should give you back your memories at all."_

_Hamma turned and walked outside into the town of Contigo, and gazed up at Jupiter lighthouse, at the brightly shining beacon and sighed. _

_"Look at the trouble you've caused for these three, Alex."_


	10. Chapter 10

The sun was shining, the birds were singing, clouds drifted across an ocean blue sky, and I was completely miserable. My heart felt like it was being torn in two. I knew that I had feelings for Felix, but now I was starting to feel something for Ivan. Was it bad to have a crush on two guys?

It didn't occur to me how important Ivan was to me until he nearly died. Was that a feeling of fondness, or more than that… I didn't know.

The door to my room in the Tolbi inn opened. I turned to see Felix standing there, his eyes sparkled. He smiled and reached for my hand and I let him take it.

"Come on, this town's a lot of fun! We need to have a look around together."

"Okay. Let's go!" I said

We walked out of the inn, and into the bright sunshine. Felix led me through the crowds, and towards the center of town, where the spring had been. We walked up to it and touched the sides. As soon as our hands landed, the water drained away (where, I don't know, or care for that matter).

"Okay, we have to toss a coin of a lucky medal into the fountain, with our backs turned away from it, and hope for the best."

"Alright!" I took a lucky medal from Felix. I turned my back to the fountain and threw the medal with all my might. After some time I turned around to see what had become of the medal. It had landed in the middle of the fountain. Right in the middle of the bull's eye.

"Bull's eye!" Felix said to me excitedly. A stone dragon suddenly extended its neck and a helm with a stone symbol fell into my hands. I looked at Felix.

"I think this would suit you better." I laughed. He smiled and took the helm. He put it on his head, and his body glowed for a moment. I blinked in surprise.

"Thanks. This helm seems to have a lot of earth power in it." He smiled. "Right, so now it's my turn. I have to win you something." He turned his back to the fountain, and tossed his medal. It rolled into a turtle that had been crawling in the water and spun to the outside of the bull's eye.

He turned around and saw where it had landed and pouted.

"I guess I'm not as lucky as you are."

"I guess not," I laughed. The dragon extended its neck and dropped a silver cloak into his hand.

"I suppose this suits you better that I. You should take it." He handed the cloak to me. I put it on, it was light despite its length and size.

"It's perfect! It's so soft too." I smiled at Felix. "Thank you."

"It suits you very well." He murmured. I blushed.

We went around town going to the different games and shops. By the time we had finished it was getting dark.

"We should probably head back," Felix muttered. "It's getting late."

I frowned. I didn't want this day to end yet. "It _is_ getting late. I don't want the others to worry. Let's go ahead and head back," I said sadly.

We walked back in silence. I guess he was feeling the same way I was, He didn't want today to end. It had been so much fun.

"Thanks for taking me out today. I really enjoyed seeing the town."

"No problem. I'm glad you had fun." We walked into the inn, to find everyone sitting around the table and eating.

"Sof yous gufs arfs backs. Dis yous hash fufs?" Garet mumbled with his mouth full of food.

"Don't talk with you mouth full Garet," scolded Mia. Garet swallowed his food.

"So you guys are back. Did you have fun?" Garet amended.

"Yeah, this town is really interesting! It's almost as much fun as…" I stopped. I almost said Clow, but was that really where I was from?

"We had a good time," said Felix, covering for me. I gave him a grateful look.

"You know," I murmured. "I think that I'll go out and look at the stars." I turned to go out the door. As soon as I made out the door, I breathed a sigh of relief. I had managed to make it out of there without to many questions. Lately they kept asking me weird questions like, 'Have you spoken to the other Sheba lately?' I kept asking who they were talking about, but they would just shake their heads and say 'never mind'.

The inn door opened. I didn't bother turning around. Arms wrapped around me. I could feel my face heating up.

"Is something the matter?"

"No, I'm fine, Felix." I turned to face him. My heart was beating really fast. I couldn't believe what I was about to do.

I stood on my tiptoes and kissed him.

The inn door opened and Ivan's voice floated out. "Hey, Sheba aren't you going to get some din−" He stopped. Felix and I broke apart.

Ivan's eyes narrowed and he glared at Felix. He then turned to me, and in the same voice as he used on my attacker in the alley he said, "Sorry for interrupting." And turned and walked back into the inn.

I opened the door and saw him walking down the hall towards the rooms. He opened the door to his room, walked in and slammed it shut. I stood in the hallway watching.

Felix had walked in behind me, and was standing at my shoulder. The others were cutting their eyes between me, Felix, and the hallway that Ivan had just stormed down.

"Hey, Ivan. I'm going out to buy a weapon to use now. Want to come and help, you are my mentor after all," I tried to sound upbeat, but I felt nervous.

"No, I don't feel like going. Why don't you get Felix to go with you?" With that Ivan turned and walked off.

_Ugh_, this had been going on for the past few days. We had decided to stay in Tolbi for a few days, so that we could just rest, before we went to Lalivero and then found Piers' boat.

Anyway, Ivan had been ignoring me or just generally been a total butt for the longest time. Every time I so much as tried to get close to him, to talk to him, he would either just say 'I have to go do something" or, "I don't feel like talking right now' or some other thing like that. It was driving me nuts.

"Okay. It's fine. I'll just go by myself," I said softly. "I didn't know it would be a bother to go with me. Bye now," I turned and left.

I started to walk towards the weapon shop, when a voice called "Wait!"

I turned to see Isaac coming my way. "Wait! I'll go with you. I'm a master of choosing weapons of course!" He nodded his head in a very self-righteous manner. I rolled my eyes.

"Okay, Isaac. Let's go." We walked through town in relative silence. Okay, I'll admit it. It was extremely awkward. I was thinking up reasons the Isaac would suddenly want to go shopping with me. I already knew he had a thing for Jenna, so… Oh. That's why. He planned on prying info out of me, about Felix, Ivan and me.

And to confirm my suspicion, what did he do? He said;

"Um, Sheba. I don't mean to pry," (Of course you do! I'm not stupid.) "But I was wondering, what exactly is going on between you, and Felix and Ivan?"

"It's complicated," I answered. His face went serious.

"Sheba, I'm not here to get information for the others. I want to know personally, and if you don't want to tell me. You don't have to."

"I know that Isaac. Except maybe about the 'not getting info for the others' part," A rather guilty look flashed across his face. "I believe you."

"Will you tell me what's going on, then?"

"Okay. You see, yesterday Felix took me out to see the town. We had a lot of fun, and he won me this cloak." I motioned to the silver cloak I was wearing. Isaac nodded.

"Well, when we came home, I wasn't too hungry, so I went outside to look at the stars, as you already know. Before going out, you remember that I suddenly stopped in the middle of my sentence? I was thinking about something. I wanted more time to think so I went outside." Isaac looked ahead, but nodded his head to tell me he was still listening.

"When, went outside, Felix followed me, and asked me what's wrong. I didn't say what was wrong, but, I… I kissed him." Isaac whipped his head around to look at me. His eyes were wide.

"You kissed him? That's unexpected. Continue with your story."

I blushed deeply. "Anyway, Ivan came out to find out if I wanted dinner or not. He was probably worried because I haven't been eating much. To sum it up, he saw us kissing."

Isaac's face went pale. "That's why he was so upset," he muttered.

"The biggest problem is, I like Felix, a lot. But at the same time, I think that I'm starting to like Ivan too. There, that was what's been wrong with me. Are you happy?"

"This might get to be problematic."

"You have to make me one promise, Isaac. You have to promise not to tell anyone about what I said. I don't want this to become and all out feud and have everyone fighting and taking side okay?"

"I understand. I won't say anything Sheba. Now let's get you a weapon." I just occurred to me that we were already in front of the weaponry shop.

"Alright let's go." I pushed the door open.


	11. Chapter 11

The light and warmth from the sun was unusually great. And to make matters worse. I was stuck in this dress with my hot, black, under armor on! I felt like I was about to faint.

We were finally on our way to Lalivero. The one thing standing in our way? An enormous desert, with an angry lizard −that from what the others said− really wanted revenge for them defeating it earlier on in their journey.

Another, personal problem that needed to be addressed, was the feud going on behind the scenes. It was Ivan versus Felix, and it looked like Isaac wasn't able to keep his trap shut, so now everyone was choosing sides. Despite the fact that they were trying to hide it, it wasn't hard for me to find out because I could easily peer into their hearts using Mind read.

It seemed it was Ivan, Mia, Jenna, and Isaac up against Felix, Piers, Garet, and me. This was just getting plain ugly, for the relationship between me, Ivan, and Felix, but it was getting bad for Mia and Garet too. I could see that they had a crush on each other, and this was just a hindrance for their relationship.

"I-Ivan? I was wondering if you could give me a lesson with the Meditation Rod I just got. I'm not quite sure how to channel pyenergy through it.

"I'm not good with weapon channeling. Ask Jenna or Mia if you want to know," was his ice cold answer.

"C'mon, Ivan. Can't you see she's trying to make up with you?" said Garet. "You could at least help her out."

"Not my problem. I don't do weapon channeling."

I lost my temper.

"I've had it! What is your problem Ivan?! All you ever do is ignore me, or tell me to go away! If you have something to say, at least say it! It's more torture for me to be ignored!"

Ivan turned towards me slowly. His purple eyes sparked dangerously.

"You want to know what's wrong?" he asked quietly. "I'll tell what it is. It's YOU! You acted like you just might have…" Ivan stopped.

"Never mind. You wouldn't understand." He turned to go.

I grabbed his hand and dragged him off through the dry grass. I'd had enough of this. Every time they started to say something important they would stop. It was annoying.

As soon as we were out of earshot of the others, I stopped pulling. I turned on him. We were standing near a cliff wall.

"Now, you have no reason to be embarrassed, no matter what you say. So tell me, what is the matter with you? Every single time I try to talk to you, you give me the cold shoulder."

"It doesn't matter. At least not anymore, you have Felix."

"That's right. I have Felix, because he actually cares about me. Because he's the _only_ one who cares for me, okay?" As soon as I had said that, I regretted it.

Ivan didn't exactly take what I had said well. He put his hands on my shoulders and pushed me into the stone wall behind us.

"Is that what you think? He's the only one that really cares, for you." His pale blond bangs were hiding his eyes.

"Did it ever cross your mind that _I_ cared about you? Did it?" He looked up into my eyes. His purple eyes were bloodshot. Like he was on the verge of tears. There was something he wasn't telling me. Something about that vision I'd seen of us dancing above the bonfire. Wait… why was that suddenly popping into my mind now?

"You're really important to me Sheba. That's why I was angry. No, that's why I was _jealous._" He let his blond hair fall back into his face. "Now you know." Ivan's arms dropped back down to his sides and he turned and walked back to the campsite.

Oh my elements. Ivan… What was I going to about this? Now whenever I get anywhere near him I start blushing nearly as bad as when I'm around Felix. Agghhh! Why is my life so complicated?!

"Hey, Sheba! We need some veggies and meat for lunch. Can you get Ivan and Felix to go with you and get some food?" called Mia. Ivan and Felix? Was she purposely trying to start a fight? Those to can't stand being around each other now. And something tells me that my presence isn't going to relive the obvious tension.

"Sure, Mia. I'll go and find them." I walked towards the field that Ivan was training in.

"Ivan!" I called.

"Hmm? What is it Sheba?" He asked. Lately, Ivan had been acting nicer to me.

"Mia wants me to ask you and Felix to help me gather food for lunch. It seems we're low."

"Sure, Sheba. I don't− Wait a second. You, me _and_ Felix?"

"Yeah." I said quietly,

"Fine, let's go find him and then get some food. I'm starving."

We found Felix overlooking the desert landscape. His eyes were angry, sad and confused all at the same time. I wonder what was bothering him. That could wait until later, first thing we needed to do was find some food.

"Felix! We need you to go with us to find some food. We're low on supplies." I called as cheerfully as I could.

"Coming," His voice sounded melancholy. What was wrong with him? We went along a path that led to a cliff side. There was a wild wolf hunting an emu on the plains.

Ivan's face lit up. "I've got this one." He took his swords out from their sheaths and tossed them into the air. Wind pyenergy picked them up. He pointed towards the wolf, and the swords sped off. In a matter of seconds the wolf had been sliced four different ways. Well, now we had about 150 pounds of meat.

"Ivan that was amazing!" I said.

"I wasn't that great," answered Ivan scratching the back of his head shyly.

"No, it wasn't," Felix said flatly. I glanced at him a bit confused. Felix generally had a very nice demeanor. The way he was acting was making me nervous.

"Well!" I said trying to break the uncomfortable silence. "Let's go find some of those veggies! Oh, but we need someone to guard the meat before some other animal gets to it. Felix, would you be so kind?"

"Fine with me," he snapped. I flinched. Ivan must have seen me wince because he looked at Felix and said; "Knock it off Felix."

Felix didn't answer he just turned and went to go stand by the meat we'd gotten. Ivan and I went off to look for some vegetables.

"Thanks for the food!" I said happily. Who knew that Mia was such a good cook?

"You actually ate something?" asked Jenna. I nodded.

"You're a really good cook Mia. You'll be good bride one day." Piers said. Mia blushed a deep shade of red.

"Oh, I'm not so sure about that…" she glanced in Garet's direction. Garet glanced in her's. They caught each other's eyes and looked away quickly. They both turned red.

Everyone laughed.

"Sheba, I'm glad that you ate. You were starting to worry me because you were getting so thin! I'd be glad to teach how to cook, if you're willing to learn from me."

I smiled. "I'd love to learn!" Mia's face lit up.

"That's great! We can cook tomorrow's lunch together." Mia said hopefully. I nodded.

The boys went to find some wood for a camp fire, while Mia, Jenna, and I cleared the dishes. I was humming a song (I really don't know what it's called but I just started humming it) when a hand landed on my shoulder. I turned to see Felix.

"Hey," Felix said. "I think we need to talk."


	12. Chapter 12

"No it's ok. I understand, Felix," I said. That was a complete lie. I felt confused and like someone had just ripped out my heart. I was hurt, and confused, but I had to put up a brave front. I didn't want him worrying about me, or anything like that.

I looked up to the sky and saw that the stars were starting to show up in the sky. "Hey, I'm going to go ahead and head back. It sure gets dark here fast."

"Sheba, I−" Felix started. I didn't want to hear it. I turned and started to head back towards the campfire. Felix was still following me back. Trying his hardest to talk to me. I broke into a run and rushed to my pile of stuff. I could feel the other's eyes on my back. I grabbed my blanket, and a pillow, and turned to the others. I was blinking back tears.

"I'm going to find a place that I can look at the stars for a while. Okay?" They looked at me silently.

"Sure, Sheba. Go ahead and do that." Isaac said softly. I forced a smile.

I swept my eyes along the group and caught Ivan's eye. That was a mistake, because I nearly burst into tears right then. I turned and started to walk into the flat plains.

"Sheba!" Felix called. He must have gotten to the campfire. I didn't want him catching up to me, so, using the wind to propel me, I sprinted into the fields.

After a while I stopped. I must have been an hour's walk away from the campfire, because it looked like a tiny speck now. I started to sob, and sob, and sob. No one would be able to catch up to me. No one… except Ivan!

A small dust cloud had formed and was heading my way. It screeched to a stop in front of me.

"Sheba. What happened?" Ivan asked. His eyes were concerned. I didn't answer, so he sat down beside me. I turned put my head on his shoulder, and started to sob, horrible heartbroken sobs.

He didn't ask questions, he just put his arms around me and pulled me close, and let me cry. Stroking my hair the entire time.

When I had cried my heart out, I looked at him. He smiled down at me.

"Are you willing to tell me what happened?" Ivan asked quietly. I nodded.

"A mistake," I said softly.

_"Sheba we need to talk." Felix said quietly. Where was this coming from?_

_"Sure, Felix. What's the matter?" I answered. He had led me away from the group._

_"I−I think that this needs to stop."_

_"What are you talking about? What needs to stop?"_

_"This façade were putting up. That kiss in Tolbi was a mistake on both our parts." He answered. "I'm very sorry that I led you on like that, but this shouldn't have happened."_

_"You make it sound like, how should I put this? Like we're breaking up," I said softly._

_"I do care about you, but, I guess you could say that, that's what we're doing. The kiss was a mistake, and the two of us being together was a mistake. I'm sorry."_

_"Why? Why are you doing this?" My voice cracked._

_"There's someone else that I love. It took me awhile to figure that out. But now I know. And I just want the best for you."_

_I shook my head. "I see." I stepped back away from him._

_"Sheba, just because it didn't work out doesn't mean we can't be friends," Felix said._

_"No, it's okay. I understand." I answered. I didn't quite comprehend what he was saying. I turned to look at the stars._

"That's what happened. He said that the he and I were a mistake. I guess we were." I managed to finish off my story without breaking into sobs again.

"I'm sorry Sheba," Ivan said

"Why are you apologizing? It's not your fault. It's mine. I was an idiot to even think that Felix would ever like a girl like me. I'm short and scrawny and not all that pretty like Mia."

"That's not true!" Ivan protested. "Yeah, you're not all that tall, and you're kind of small,"

"Thanks Ivan. Your making me feel sooo much better," I rolled my eyes sarcastically.

"But you're one of the prettiest girls I've ever met, and trust me, I've met a lot of girls," he finished.

I blushed up a storm. My face must have resembled a strawberry by now. Pretty? He thought I was pretty?

"I don't think I want to go back yet. I− I'm not ready to face Felix yet," I whispered.

"We don't have to go back tonight. If you want to stay out, I'll stay with you," Ivan whispered back.

I put my head on his shoulder, again. "Thanks, Ivan."

Bright sunshine stung my eyes. I opened my eyes and sat up with a start. It was already morning and we were still out in the middle of nowhere, and the others weren't anywhere near here. Ivan was still sleeping soundly on the blanket. I shook his shoulder.

"Sheba, what's going on?" Ivan asked groggily.

"We stayed out all night, Ivan!" I said.

"No we didn't even leave camp," he said still half asleep. I pulled his head up and peeled open his eye lids.

"I'm telling you that we stayed out all night!!" He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. His eyes widened.

"Oh, elements. We really did stay out all night. We need to get back, now!"

We scrambled to pick up the blankets, the pillow and then we started tearing our way back to the rest of the group. They were probably already suspicious and I could just imagine what that idiot Garet was going to say.

We rushed into campsite while the others were cleaning up breakfast dishes, and picking up the rest of the stuff.

"Ah, you're back. Your breakfast is over there," Jenna said as soon as she had seen us.

"Um, thanks." We went and sat down and began eating as we watched the others. They kept looking at us and giving us these small smiles. All except for Felix. He just acted like we weren't there at all. This bothered me even more than those tiny mischievous smiles the others were giving us.

Ivan's arm brushed up against mine. We looked at each other.

"Sorry," Ivan said quietly. I didn't answer; I just looked at my food, and smiled quietly.

_Hama watched Ivan and Sheba through the misty screen, and smiled. _

_"I'm sorry that you had to have your heart broken to see the truth, but it needed to be done. Felix wasn't the one for you. I suppose I could let you have a few of your memories back at a time young one," she said softly._


	13. Chapter 13

_Animus desendeat ab orbis. The words just floated into my head. Anemous has descended to this earth? What was that supposed to mean? _

I sat up with a start, and looked about quickly. Oh, yeah. We had stopped for a short while, and I had been sleepy so I took a nap. I blinked the sleep out

My eyes and looked for the rest of the group. The others were all still sleeping soundly, but one was missing. Ivan.

"You're awake?" said a voice. I turned quickly, and found that I was standing close enough to him for our noses to touch. I started blushing, because it reminded me of last night. We had... almost...

"Why don't we go take a walk? We're finally out of that desert," Ivan said smiling.

"O-okay."

We walked away from the others and made our way towards a forest. Something raised high above the forest and was glowing.

"That seems rather familiar," I muttered.

"Familiar? How so?"

"I don't know, it just feels like I've been here before." I turned to look at Ivan. His eyes had widened and he was pale.

"Maybe, we should head back. C'mon Sheba."

I heard his words but they no meaning to them. I kept walking towards the forest, towards the light.

Wait, not a light. A lighthouse!

I broke into a run, sprinting towards the lighthouse as fast as I could.

"Sheba! SHEBA!" Nothing. His words meant nothing to me. I had to keep going.

I sprinted through the forest and came to the entrance of the lighthouse. An enormous building. It had huge statues in the front, and a double staircase leading up to one giant door. A tree was echeted in stone on the ground. I walked up to the door and pushed on it. A blinding flash of light.

Things came and went in my mind like riding on a wagon at top speed. Memories went rushing by suddenly.

_"Move it or lose it girly!" A voice said._

_"I won't let you hurt Sheba! Sheba let's go." Felix's voice said in my mind. A glowing sphere, a flash of light. A group of people. Two bodies falling to oblivion. A sudden earthquake. Tumbling of the top of the lighthouse. Felix's face._

_"Don't let go!" Felix urging me. Letting go anyway. Falling to my certain death. I had no fear, I knew I was going to die and I had no fear. Felix jumping to save me, his arms wrapping around me. Splashing into the sea._

I stood there like a zombie, one hand on the door. I took a step back. I heard panting behind me and realized that Ivan was running to catch up to me.

"Venus Lighthouse. This place is called Venus Lighthouse," I said softly.

"Yeah." Was all that Ivan said.

The two of us went back together as I recited memories that I suddenly had. I remember that two groups had fought. The group that lost fell into the beacon well, they had certainly died. What was going on here? Why was it so hard to remember the names of the people that fell? Why?

I had so many questions, and I already knew that no one was willing to answer me. Looks likes I'd have to do some spying. I could feel this odd sneaky smile spreading across my face.

"Sheba? What are you smiling about now?" Ivan asked.

I smiled sweetly. "Why, nothing my dear Ivan! What would make you think that I was smiling for a very devious thought just crossed my mind?"

"Because that wasn't at all suspicious." Ivan answered while rolling his eyes.

We continued walking back towards the area we had taken a break. I stopped short suddenly, as I mentally slapped myself for missing the important detail.

"Felix was the one who saved me, as I fell towards the ocean. He swam out in the ocean… and that's all… I remember. He saved my life," I said to Ivan. He looked away and said; "I know that. He jumped after you, when the earthquake ripped apart the lighthouse."

"What's the matter Ivan? Why won't you look me in the eyes?"

"Because…because I regret the fact that I wasn't the one who saved you that day," He said quietly.

"Why do you regret that? I'm still, here and that's what's important right?"

"I regret it because! Because… Oh, never mind, let's just get back to the others."

_**Huh?**_

Why the heck are guys so confusing? One minute they're finally willing to tell you something important, then they suddenly snap shut. Oy.

Oh, well. When he's ready he'll tell me. You just have to trust that guys will tell you things when they're ready. And I completely trust Ivan, but I'm not sure why.

We finally got back to the others, who had by then woken up.

"Why are you and Sheba always going on your little romantic−" Garet never got the chance to finish his sentence because Mia froze him in a block of ice, with a snap of her fingers.

"Ignore him. Anyway, where did you guys go?" Mia inquired in her ever soft voice. I don't think I quite heard her, because I was to busy gaping at the block of ice that Garet was now in. All that was moving were his eyeballs, and he kept looking at the others desperately. Isaac just looked at him and laughed.

I shook my head. Mia was really scary!

"We went to Venus Lighthouse," I said finally. The others looked at me in shock.

"Sheba, you remember this place? How?" Felix said.

"I don't know how. I just touched the door of the lighthouse and memories just came rushing back to me. One of the things I remembered was the fact that you, Felix, saved me from drowning."

His eyes widened and for a second he looked kind of happy. Like he was glad that I remembered. But it wasn't long before his eyes took on a sad look. I had a sneaking suspicion that he might try to fake out of this, so I use Mind Read and confirmed it.

"I have no idea what you're talking about. Are you sure you didn't catch a cold and have a fever. Fevers are known to cause hallucinations.

"I'm not lying! I know you saved me! I know because I just used Mind Read! Why are you lying to me?"

_Hamma frowned. She had allowed a memory that Sheba had not been ready for. This was causing Ivan and Sheba to grow closer, but I was causing a rift to form between Felix and Sheba. What had the actions of __**that person**__ caused for the entire party?_


	14. Chapter 14

_Why is that trust is so easily broken, but so hard to gain? _

I walked into the town Lalivero, calmly. What was I greeted by? Chaos.

As soon as someone spotted me, they shouted at the top of their lungs: "Lady Sheba has returned home!" The crowed went into an uproar. I was greeted by hugs and kisses on the hands. And this time, I wasn't in the least scared or surprised, because walking up to the gate and touching it had given me memories of this place. I felt comfortable.

An elderly lady came through the crowd. She was bent from years of hard work, but her voice was strong.

"Oy! Move out of the way! Let me get to Milady!" The other townsfolk moved aside.

The woman smiled at me and the smile lines around her eyes crinkled up. She took my hands in hers.

"My lady. I thought that I would never see you again. I am overjoyed that you're back. I'm sure Faren will host a festival in your honor. He misses you so," She said softly.

I winced when she said Faren. Now I remembered him, but before I hadn't. No doubt he would be bitter from our last meeting.

I nodded. "Thank you, Baya. Please my friends need a place to stay as well."

The woman looked at the others and nodded. "We'll take of that soon, but first you must see your father."

She led us through out town which took about an hour because I was constantly being hugged or greeted. When we finally got to the main home, I stepped up to the door and opened it a little bit.

A voice said, "Baya? Is that you?" I fully opened the door.

"No, Father. It's me, Sheba." I said. I felt Ivan's hand rest on my shoulder reassuringly. It did make me feel better.

Faren stood up and looked at me. He walked up to me and said, "How do I know that you're the Sheba I know? You gave me the cold shoulder the other day."

"I'm sorry about that. I finally figure out what's been going on. It seems that I've lost some of my memories."

After everything had been resolved, (Too many things to explain) a festival dance was announced for this night in my honor.

I was plenty excited about the dance, I only had one problem. I had nothing to wear.

_"Don't worry. Baya will prepare something" _Faren had said. I just hoped he was right.

A knock on the room door I was staying in. "Come in," I called. The door opened, and then shut behind the person. Baya had come in with a wonderful white knee length dress. It had a purple sash in the middle.

"This will be the dress you'll be wearing tonight." I took the dress and changed. Baya helped me tie the sash. I looked in the mirror and saw a small, thin, blond staring back at me. Her green eyes were excited and nervous. I smiled. I actually looked pretty good.

I opened the door and walked down the hall, then down the stairs, out the door and into the front yard. The others were standing there, all dressed up for the dance. Even Garet had combed his hair. (The only difference was that the spikes were slightly neater. That's not saying much. Trust me.) Ivan put out his arm for me to take.

"I'll be your escort tonight, Lady Sheba," he said winking at me. I smiled at him.

Garet sighed. "Too bad Fay isn't here. It would have been a real party if she were." The others started to shake their heads.

"Fay? Who's Fay?"

"Fay's my sister, and Felix's−" His sentence was cut short as he was frozen in another block of ice.

"Honestly, Garet. You need to learn to shut up," Mia murmured.

"Felix's what? Girlfriend?" Despite everything, I could feel those feelings of jealousy and insecurities building up again.

I looked at Felix, who was trying (and failing miserably) to seem interested in a plant.

"That's what you meant. You already had a GIRLFRIEND? What? Was I just a toy?" I turned and stormed back inside.

I heard Isaac say, "What are you waiting for Ivan? An invitation? Go after her, stupid!"


	15. Chapter 15

I sat on the bed in the room that I was using. Tears were beginning to fill up in my eyes. _A mistake_. It wasn't a mistake. It was a lie. He didn't want to tell me the truth

So he found a way to make it seem like the best choice was for the two of us to end it.

_I do care about you._ Liar.

_I just want the best for you_.

"Liar! You lied to me!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. The tears were streaming out of my eyes now. Why was I crying? It was already over, wasn't it? Why did it hurt?

_Tap tap tap._ A knock at my door. I swear if it was the fool Felix, I was going to shoot him full of lightning the minute he opened that door.

The door opened and the person that walked in wasn't Felix, but Ivan. He backed up a little when he saw that I had my palm facing him, and it was crackling with electricity.

"Whoa. Peace, I just came to talk." He said quietly. I lowered my hand.

"What do you want? I'm not in the mood to talk."

"Then you don't have to." I turned to look at him; he took a step inside and then closed the door behind him. "No one is forcing you to talk."

I sat down hard on the bed, put my head in my hands and sobbed. Ivan sat down on the bed beside me and wrapped his arms around me. I put me head on his shoulder and stared out the window into the setting sun. It was kind of a blurry red smudge because of my tears though.

But being beside Ivan, I felt calm. My pain and worries seemed to just float away. I turned and looked at him; he turned to look at me. I smiled through my tears.

"How about we go and enjoy the dance held in your name," Ivan said while stroking my hair.

"Oh, alright."

We walked out the door towards the town square where a bonfire had been lit and dancers were enjoying folk music. When the two of us arrived at the square, the crowd let out a whoop, and shouted together, "Welcome home Lady Sheba!"

I smiled and nodded my head in thanks as Ivan led me towards the circle of dancers. They parted to let us through.

Ivan put one hand on my waist and one hand held mine. I put my hand on his shoulder, and we began to waltz together. I felt so happy being there with him.

We danced two dances together, and then Piers came to claim me, then a bunch of guys that I didn't know very well.

Near the end of the evening, Felix came to ask me to dance with him. I wanted to just shut him down right then and there and walk off, but something held me back.

I'm not sure what it was but I just couldn't tell him off, so I took his offer for a dance.

As we danced together he tried to start up a conversation. I didn't say anything of course but I did smile at some of his jokes.

"So, have you had a good evening?" was one of the questions he asked.

"Fine." The song we had been dancing to came to an end. I stepped away from him and said, "I really must get back to Ivan. He was my escort." I turned and started to walk away.

"Sheba," Felix called. I stopped and turned to him. "I'm really sorry."

"Humph." I turned and walked away. I would forgive him one day, but not today.

Ivan was waiting near the door of Faren's home. In the moonlight with his hair shining with a faint golden glow, he looked so handsome I couldn't help but blush.

He turned to me and smiled with those perfectly white teeth. I blushed even harder.

"Sheba? Are you okay? Your face is all red; you don't have a fever do you?" He walked up to me and brushed my bangs aside and put his forehead on mine. He closed his eyes.

"W-w-what a-are you doing?" I asked

"Checking for fever…No you aren't feverish so why are you−" He opened his eyes and looked directly into mine. I never knew just how a pretty amethyst color his eyes were.

He took a sudden step back. "Sorry."

"No. It's okay. So what were you doing?" I decided on starting a conversation.

"Nothing really. I was just looking at the moon. Sometimes it feels like it's calling to me."

"You feel that way too?" I said softly. He turned to look at me. "That day that I got attacked by that wolf, I had a dream where I was standing under this really pretty moonlit sky and it felt like it was tugging me towards it. And then…"

"And then?" Ivan prompted.

"The shadow of a woman appeared and asked me 'who will you chose'. The scene changed and I saw someone standing by a river and went and stood by that person, and I felt like everything would be okay. I had nothing to worry about."

Ivan stayed quiet for a moment. "Have you had dreams like that a lot recently?"

"I used to have that dream frequently, but now all of my dreams are my memories. Things that I had forgotten and now keep rushing back to me in waves." I answered. "Each time I had that dream with the moon it became more and more clear. The person beside me has really pretty eyes."

"Oh." He said. "Hey, I think they're warping up the dance. The bonfire is being put out."

"Well it's late. I think I'm going to go ahead and go to bed. Good night." I started to walk inside. I stopped turned around, dashed up to Ivan's side. I planted a kiss on his cheek and turned back to walk inside.

"What was that?" Ivan said, surprise in his voice.

"Honestly Ivan. You should never question a kiss." I walked through the doorway and towards my room.

_A full moon was out that night. I looked beautiful, but whenever I looked at it, I felt like it was calling to me. It was such a nostalgic feeling. A shadow appeared over the moon and floated down towards me. The shadow took on a very human shape, it looked like a woman. In the moonlight, I could just make out the color of her hair. _

_Purple. Her hair was purple. _

_"Beware. The memories you have gained have been pleasant, but not all are of joyous times," It said._

_The scene changed. I was running towards a river…no. A lake. An enormous lake. Someone was standing there; I stopped by his side and looked at him. He turned towards me, and smiled. His eyes were a beautiful color, and his hair was…_

"Well, that's what you get you two for drinking so much at the party last night!!" A voice screamed. I sat up quickly. Who was yelling this early in the morning?

I opened my door and walked towards the kitchen, where I heard Jenna reading someone the riot act.

"If you guys had just stopped at the third cup, you would be fine. But no! You kept going! Idiots."

I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and turned towards Piers. "What's going on?"

Piers calmly put down his cup of water. And pointed towards Garet and Isaac whose heads were on the table.

"Those two, have hangovers from the party last night. It seems that the drinks being handed out last night weren't flavored water."

I stifled a giggle. "I knew there was something up with those drinks. You could smell them from some distance away." I smirked. "Sucks for you."

"Ah, Jenna stop yelling! I'm sorry alright? My head already hurts," Ivan moaned. Mia was using Ply on him while a small pack pf ice was sitting on his forehead.

"Oh, no. When I'm done with you, you won't be able to see straight your head will hurt so badly."

"I already can't see straight," Garet complained. Jenna flicked him right in the middle of his forehead. Garet whimpered in pain.

I heard footsteps behind me.

"What's Jenna yelling about this early?" Ivan yawned.

I thrust my thumb towards Garet and Isaac. "Those two have hangovers."

"That water from last night?"

"Yup."

Ivan shook his head sympathetically. "I knew it."


	16. Chapter 16

These past few days have passed peacefully for me. Everything seems to be falling into place.

After reuniting with Faren, we've spent several days in town. But as all good things must do, it's coming to an end. We're leaving for the coast in the morning to hitch a ride on Piers' boat to a place called Mercury Lighthouse.

Ivan and I went shopping for some supplies and then I felt like going out of town to find some monsters to kick around so the two of us headed out after dropping the stuff at Faren's.

As we walked about fighting some monsters, Ivan and I started to talk again about my dreams. The dreams I'd been having as of late hadn't been as pleasant as usual. I kept seeing a person with long ocean blue hair. He always spoke in this sickly sweet voice. Every time I heard it, I felt like screaming.

Ivan listened to my story but he never really said anything about the person I described.

We found a fairly tough monster that had attacked us. It was this huge salamander like thing with a giant horn right in the middle of his forehead. I went to attack him and my Meditation rod landed right on the horn. The rod shattered like glass.

I was frozen in place staring at the shaft that had once been my rod, while Ivan ran his swords through the monster.

He came up to look at the weapon and grimaced. "I don't think that the weapon smith will be able to repair that mess."

"No kidding. I'll have to get a new weapon. I wonder if I should go with a mace, or another rod?"

We stood by and thought for some time then Ivan smiled and said, "I've got it! How about a bow and arrow set?"

I was in the kitchen at Faren's preparing dinner for everyone. I was now the proud owner of an Artemis bow. The arrows never ran out, and you could channel pyenergy easily thorough it. And best of all, despite the fact that I could swear I've never picked up a bow in my life, I was a natural shot. Within an hour of practice I was able to hit moving targets. Bull's eye every time.

So life was all good, until the others all left the house. Right as I was putting dinner on the table, Isaac, Jenna, Garet and Mia walked past the table.

"We're going out, so we won't be needing dinner," Garet announced as they walked out the door. Piers followed saying how he wanted a good look around town. There was a weapon showing in the square. Felix caught wind of what Piers said and went along.

I looked at the plate of long grain desert rice, the stew, and cakes I had cooked and sighed. Might as well put everything away, no one would be eating it anyway.

As I was clearing the table, a voice spoke up, "I don't get dinner?"

I turned to look at Ivan, standing in the doorway of the kitchen. He crossed his arms. "I kinda wanted to eat."

"Oh. I'll put a plate on the table, and leave you to eat in peace," I said sadly, still disappointed about my wasted efforts.

"I meant eat together. We can go on the roof, and have a mini picnic. The sun is setting. It should look really pretty in the flat desert landscape."

Together? That sounded like he was asking me on some romantic date. I mean, watching the sunset on the roof, alone, together? I felt myself blushing.

"I-I-I guess w-we could. If you set up the blanket on the roof top, I'll be up in a few minutes with the food," I managed to stutter.

"Great!" Ivan said enthusiastically. He headed up the stairs. I put the food together on a tray and headed up after him.

When I finally managed to balance the tray correctly and make it up the ladder that was set at a seventy degree angle, I poked my head out of the hole and saw Ivan sitting in the middle of the roof while watching the sunset.

I walked over and set the tray down in between the two of us. He made an instant beeline for the food. I just sat there fidgeting with my skirt, and my hair and then finally the blanket.

"Sheba," Ivan said suddenly.

"Yes!" I squeaked.

"Aren't you going to eat anything?"

"Oh, um…" I picked up my plate and took a few bites. It turned out that I had actually cooked something worthwhile.

"It's really good. You're a great cook, Sheba," Ivan commented while shoveling four bites worth of food into his mouth.

I loosened up pretty fast after that. Being around Ivan didn't make me as nervous as being around Felix did.

We spent the entire time talking. When we had finished, Ivan cleared the plates off of the blanket and sat down. He patted the seat beside him to show that he wanted me to sit down.

I sat down beside him and watched the sky lighten a little as the moon rose beyond the horizon.

We sat there in silence as we watched when I shifted my hand and it brushed against his. I blushed as started to pull my hand back when Ivan grabbed it and didn't let go.

I put my head on his shoulder and he let go of my hand to put it around my shoulder.

I looked at him. His hair had turned that pretty shade of gold again. He turned to look at me, and then he leaned down and kissed me on the cheek.

"What was that for?" I asked jokingly.

"You should never question a kiss," Ivan answered.

The moment was ruined when Garet stuck his head through the ladder hole.

"There you guys are!" he said to the two of us. "Hey, guys I found them. They're up−" A light blue gloved hand shot out of the hole and grabbed Garet's collar and yanked him back down.

Mia poked her head up and said, "Sorry about that. We didn't mean to interrupt."

"You weren't interrupting. We're about to come back inside right, Ivan?" I answered. I glanced at Ivan he met my eyes.

"Yeah," Ivan said slowly. He picked up the blanket and looked away. "We'll be in a second."

As soon as Mia's head disappeared through the hole, I glanced at Ivan; he was looking at the moon with this pained expression on his face. I gathered up the dishes and headed downstairs, leaving him up there.

As we we're sitting around that night, packing and making plans to leave tomorrow, Faren walked in.

"What are you guys doing?" He asked in a light hearted tone.

"Packing to get ready to leave tomorrow," I answered. A shadow passed across Faren's face. He was silent for a moment.

"You may leave," he said finally pointing to the others. "But, Sheba stays here."


	17. Chapter 17

I stared out the window of my home, and my prison. I was trapped here because of the selfish thoughts of people. This is the end of _my _journey.

The reason I'm saying all of this? It's because Faren said that I couldn't leave.

Last night when we were packing for the trip, Faren came in and asked up what we were doing and answered that we had started getting ready for the trip to Mercury Lighthouse and Imil. His answer had been that the others were allowed to leave, but I wasn't. What was Faren thinking? Did he not want me to get my memories back at all?

I looked outside at the happy town and wished with all my heart that I could be that carefree.

The door to my room opened, and Mia and Jenna walked in. I didn't bother turning around to find out why they were there.

"Hey, Sheba. We're sorry but we can't delay any longer, we have to go," Mia said softly.

"No, it's alright. I don't want to delay you guys anymore than I have. You need to go and find that person," I answered.

"People," Jenna said to herself.

"Huh?"

"People…we needed to find two people. We found one, and that's you."

"I'm not the person you're looking for. I'm not strong willed or anything like the real Sheba. I'm more like an incomplete set of puzzle pieces. All I do is get in your way. I'm useless," I said. I was near tears; I didn't want to be left behind.

_Slap_.Jenna's had flew across my face. I put a hand on my cheek and looked at her.

"Useless? Is that what you think you are? No, Sheba you're not! When Ivan first brought you back, you looked like Sheba, but there was something different about you. Your eyes were different, harder, like a princess. Yeah, at first you were annoying with your attitude and the fact that you acted like you hated us. But as time went by you softened up. Your eyes took on gentleness and you smiled again."

Jenna grabbed my hand and dragged me over to the mirror. "The girl you see in there, does that look like the weak, frail girl you were when we first meet? Does it?"

"No… My eyes are calmer, I guess." I said. It was true; the intense look of their eyes had crept into mine.

"She's right, Jenna," said a voice behind us. We turned to see Felix and the other boys standing at the door.

"She's not the Sheba we knew. Not yet anyway. She doesn't even look like the Sheba we knew."

"Yeah. The reason we didn't know the minute we meet you was because of you looks. You always had pale skin, and now you're solidly bronzed," Garet said.

"And you were short and as scrawny as a chicken," Isaac added.

"And now you're taller and tanner and you're….,"Ivan paused and then his ears turned bright pink, "Curvy too. When you left you were only 14 years old, now you're about 16. We were expecting that scrawny, pale 14 year old."

I turned pink. Curvy?

Ivan walked over to me and put out his hand. I put my hand in his and he pulled me into a hug.

"We won't leave you here forever. We'll find a way for you to come with us okay? So don't worry too much about it."

I nodded. "I believe in you, all of you."

"Well then. I guess we need to be leaving," Isaac said. He and the others turned to leave. Ivan stayed behind for a few seconds, kissed me on the cheek, and then followed.

Tears sprang to my eyes again. I was saying goodbye to my closest friends and…someone very important to me.

I quickly dashed up the steps and climbed the ladder out to the roof just in time to watch them walk out the gate.

I stood there in silence for a few moments before I felt someone else's presence. I turned around to face them.

"Baya. What are you doing here?"

"Lady Sheba. I'm not sure how to put this. But I think that you should do what your heart tells you sometimes. Instead of what you head tells you all the time."

"Are you saying that I should follow them?"

"If that is what your heart tells you to do, then do it. I will take the blame once they find out about your disappearance," Baya told me. "You will also need these." She held up the bundle in her hands and gave it to me. "They are for travel. Very light and comfortable. Hurry and change."

"Baya…" I took the clothes we went back inside. I quickly changed into them and glanced in the mirror.

The clothes were absolutely beautiful. I had on a top that came half way down my torso leaving my stomach exposed. The top had purple jewels inserted into silver outside. The edges on the short sleeves were royal blue. The pants were baggy in the native style, with a light blue sash at the top part of it. The bottom edge of the pants was royal blue as well.

I had an extra blue scarf which was draped along my back and over my arms. I was wearing silver earrings and silver necklace with a purple jewel in the middle of it and a matching circlet.

I grabbed my bow and arrows and headed for the roof. I turned to look at Baya. "Thank you very much, Bayama," I said calling her by the name I once did as a young child.

"Go." She said as she hugged me goodbye. I hugged her back and climbed the ladder unto the roof, then jumped onto the wall surrounding the city. I jumped of the wall unto the other side and followed the tracks of my friends left on the desert floor.

So I got as far as Venus Lighthouse when I admitted I was totally lost. I didn't know where the others had gone, I didn't see any shoe prints anywhere, I was utterly and completely lost.

"Shoot. There's no where they could have gone that I couldn't find them, right?"

Obviously there was, and I just wasn't seeing it. It was getting late so I decided that I would go ahead and get some sleep.

I lay down on the soft grass by the lighthouse, and thought about the others. What were they doing right now? Were they already on the boat? Was this all for nothing?

"Ivan…please send me a sign of where you are," I heard myself saying as I drifted off into sleep.


	18. Chapter 18

_I opened my eyes. I was lying down on a hill covered with grass. It was nighttime and a billion stars blazed above. I looked down and saw that I was wearing a beautiful purplish- silver gown._

_I stood up and saw the beautiful grassy plains that seemed to spread out for forever._

_"…ba. Sheba!" a voice shouted. I turned and saw Ivan. He was wearing a silver robe with a rope belt around his waist. His blond hair lay limp around his face._

_"Ivan? What are you doing here?" I asked bewildered. _

_"Shouldn't I be the one asking you that? I fell asleep and found myself here."_

_"Fell asleep? Wait a second. That means that this is a dream. People aren't conscious that they're in a dream usually," I said._

_"Exactly. This means that this dream was created by a Dream Seer. The only person I knew could do that was my sister Hamma." Ivan said with his eyebrows raised. "Is it possible that you unlocked this power too? Is it only present in Jupiter Adepts or…?" His eyes took this distant look, like he was trying to remember something important._

_"I guess so." A Dream Seer? What kind of new power had I suddenly acquired? I mean back when I was in Clow I used to see dreams that eventually came true but I'd never met and spoke with someone in my dreams._

_ Ivan suddenly snapped back into reality. (Or as real as you can get in a dream.) "So, why did you call me here? A seer only uses powers like this when they need to relay a message or get information in a hurry."_

_"I wanted to find you guys. I'm kind of in the middle of the desert and I can't find you anywhere, so I just said 'Ivan' right before I fell asleep and, here you are," I said quietly knowing that Ivan was going to be mad at me for leaving the safety of the city to look for them._

_As if on cue, "YOU WHAT?! You left the city? Are you nuts, you could get attacked by a monster in your sleep! Why are you so reckless?" Ivan snapped all in one breath._

_"Sorry. But I couldn't stand being left behind so I followed you. I guess it was reckless for me to just leave without a plan."_

_"What's done is done. Once you wake up, create as big a storm as possible. We'll see it, and know that it's you. But for now, goodbye, I'll see you again soon," Ivan's gave me a small smile and hugged me. _

_He turned and began to walk away and at the same time seemed to be dissolving, like a pile of sand being blown by a strong wind. The field that I had created started to dissolve to and finally disappeared, leaving me complete darkness._

I sat up and shook my head. Wow, I had discovered a new, really useful power. I could contact people I needed to whenever I needed to now.

**Lady Sheba. You've finally awakened.** What? Someone had been just talking in my head. A female voice, not the other Sheba, but another voice.

"Who's there?" I asked.

**You have nothing to fear, Shebs. It's us, your Djinn.** Said a male voice.

**Blitz! Have respect! She's an adept, and a powerful one at that. It's good manners to call her **_**Lady**_** Sheba.**

**Oh, I'm sorry, Zephyr, but not all of us are goody-two-shoes like you are.**

**You wanna fight, Blitz? Bring it on, you good for nothing!!**

**Oh, I'm a good for nothing? I'm not the one who only boosts agility. I actually attack the enemy.**

**Yeah, with an attack that **_**might**_** actually work! **_**Oh I'm all big and bad. I might stun the foe.**_** Oh, give me a break. My wings are trembling in fear.**

Okay. Either I was fighting with myself, (a sign of lost sanity) or there was something inside of me arguing away. And the one with the female voice was winning.

"Umm, would one of you guys care to explain what in the world is going on?" I asked.

**Shut up you two! ** Screamed another voice. The voice then directed its speech towards me.** I apologize for those two. They haven't started to get along any better then before, you see. Anyway, I understand you've lost some of your memories. Well, in short we're Djinn that help adepts like you out. We power you up and stuff. My name is Lull.**

"It's nice to meet you. So how did you guys get inside me?"

**We've been inside you this entire time. We've just been sleeping because your powers were stripped away from you by **_**him.**_

"Him? Who's him? Is it that blue haired guy I keep seeing in my dreams?" I said. I was on the verge of a breakthrough. I might just get some information.

**Yes. Alex. He took your powers away, sent you to that other place, and drained us completely.**

That was his name. Alex.

**Anyway. Let's ignore any of those depressing thoughts and focus on the task at hand. You need to create some sort of attraction to alert your presence to the other adepts right? So lets make a big storm! **Finished Lull.

**Alright! **Said Blitz.** It's been some time since we've been summoned!**

**Ok, ladies and gents. How about a Thor? **Zephyr said.

"Thor? What's Thor?"

**It's a summon using four Jupiter Djinn. That's us. Just put four of us on standby and we'll do the rest.**

"How do I do that? Do I just focus on four of you and then you go to standby?"

**That's the idea Shebs. Then say 'Thor' and we'll create lots of attention.**

"Okay. I'll use Blitz, Zephyr, Lull, and…."

**Me!** Said another female voice. **I'm Gale!**

"Okay. Gale." I focused on those four Djinn and I felt them tense up. I looked up towards the sky. _Please let this work._

"THOR!" I screamed. I felt four balls of energy leave my body and rush skywards. There was a flash of purple light, and then a magic circle with a triangle appeared in the sky and with a zap of lighting, a giant appeared with a stone hammer and several blots of lightning came down and making a huge commotion.

"Oh, well that's definitely enough to get some attention." I noticed that I felt tired after doing the summoning.

**How was that for big, loud, and flashy? ** Blitz asked. He sounded really tired.

"Great job guys. Thanks."

Almost immediately after the summoning I saw a huge cloud of dust moving towards me. The only explanation for that would be Ivan, coming to find me.

When the dust cloud stopped nearby, I rushed to find Ivan. The dust cloud was still settling when I got there. I started blowing it away and calling Ivan's name.

Oddly enough, there was no response. I kept walking through out the cloud blowing away the dust when a hand shot out of the dust and grabbed my arm.

I panicked. Ivan was never that rough with me. I started to squirm and pull my arm away from the person gripping it. The person walked out of the cloud of dust slowly. Long blue hair, a slim but strong build…

"Humph. I was hoping to find that other Jupiter adept. I thought I got rid of you 2 years ago."

The person that walked out of the dust was Alex.

_"No. No! This can't be happening! How…?" Hamma's face was horror stricken. She stared at the misty screen for a few moments before sweeping her hand and breaking the connection. She turned and sprinted outside, and looked at Jupiter Lighthouse. The man that had caused all of this turmoil to happen, the man that had betrayed them all. The one who had taken Sheba away from her younger brother._

_Alex. He was alive._

_"I need to get to the lighthouse. It might be dangerous but my connection with Ivan is stronger there, maybe I can tell him about Sheba…"Hamma took a deep breath and then raced through the town and towards the lighthouse._


	19. Chapter 19

I sat at the back of a barn-like place. There was hay and I could smell animal dung, so I assumed that it was a stable.

Anyway, the reason behind me being in this awful place was Alex. Yes, the same Alex who had ripped me away from my friends the one that I despised. The one who had betrayed us, and gone to Mt. Aleph when the energy of the four lighthouses gathered, just so he could have ultimate power. Your typical egotistical, power-hungry, diabolical villain.

I sat there bound by myrthil ropes wondering what I should do to get out of my rather annoying predicament. You know, before I got killed. My dear Djinn weren't of much help to me because they had once again been drained. I was too weak to do anything. Was this how I was going to die? Killed at the hands of a power-hungry fool? Without a friend there to hold my hand?

"So you've awakened, love?" I turned my head towards the sickly sweet voice. Alex stepped out of the shadows and approached me.

"Well, I must say that I didn't get a good look at you before. You certainly aren't the scrawny little child anymore. In fact you've become quite the beauty. Humph. Maybe I should keep you alive for a little while longer so I can—"

"If you so much as touch me, I promise you won't live to see another day," I answered coldly.

"Oh, really? I would like to see you try when you're pyenergy is being restricted. Huh. Some things never change. You're just as sharp tongued as before," he answered coolly.

He reached out to stroke my chin, I bit at him and he pulled his hand back swiftly.

"You act as if you're saving yourself for someone else…That fool, Felix? Or is it that other boy you seemed so close to? What was his name…? Ah, yes. Ivan." He looked straight into my eyes with his ocean blue ones.

I looked away. "What does it matter to you?" I asked in a whisper.

"So it is that peasant boy? Ha! To think you of all people would fall in love with that useless boy!"

"Shut up! You don't know anything about him! He…he…"

"You don't even know if he feels the same way about you, do you?"

Alex's words stung badly. The truth was I _did_ love Ivan. At least I felt I did, but I didn't have the strength to tell him my feelings. Or even express them the way I had done with Felix. I was scared, scared of being shut out again.

"What do you know? Maybe he does!" I snapped weakly. I was feeling so tired, like someone had drained me of all the strength I had left.

"And maybe he doesn't. You don't know. Poor child."

I glared at him. "I hope you die and rot in the depths of—"

"Now, now. No reason to use foul language with you're generous host. I'm being kind to you, you know. I could kill you now, where no one to grieve over you. Or I could kill you later when your precious friends finally show up."

I didn't answer because by the time he finished his sentence I had fallen asleep.

"_Ivan!" I called out in the dark dreamscape I had created. "Where are you? I really need your help right now!" No answer came from him but an answer did come from someone._

"_Sheba? Is that you? You've grown so much dear!"_

_I turned around to come face to face with a woman with blond hair, green eyes and purple eyebrows._

"_Wha—? Um, hello? I'm looking for my friend Ivan. Have you seen him?" I asked timidly. Who was this lady? She looked so familiar._

"_No, I haven't seen anyone by the name of Ivan. But what do you need to know deary? I'm sure I can help you out," The woman answered sweetly. (I don't know she just had this very maternal feeling to her.)_

"_I've been trapped by someone who's out to kill me for a power that I acquired trying to contact a friend. I can create dreams and see people who are far away from me using it. But I don't know how to get to him."_

_The woman touched her lip in thought. "Wait…Did you say Ivan? I do believe I know someone by that name. Or rather know that someone was named that."_

"_Huh?"_

"_One moment, love." She shut her eyes tightly and glowed a faint purple. "Ah! Here we are. You entered the wrong dream dear. You were looking for that one over there." She pointed at a door that suddenly came into view._

"_Oh…um, thank you," I murmured. _

"_You're quite welcome dear." The woman turned and began walking off into the darkness._

"_Wait! Who are you?" I called after her._

_Her body was already starting to fade as she continued walking. "Why, Sheba! A smart girl like you hasn't figured it out yet? And when you were given your true name I thought it would bring you insight…" She muttered as she stopped._

"_You're not answering my question," I said._

_She began walking again. "I'm your mother, of course." And with that faded from sight._

_I walked through the door to the dream I was looking for in a daze. My Mother? I finally got to meet my mother? As I stumbled into the door I found I was standing on the aerie of a lighthouse. At first I thought it was Venus Lighthouse, but everything was purple and silver. The statues that were standing around a large glowing purple sphere were naked angels with bows and arrows all facing the beacon. Wind whipped my hair and clothes as if I was in a tornado, leaves blew around me furiously. And yet, I felt right at home. I felt calm._

_Jupiter Lighthouse. I was seeing a vision of Jupiter Lighthouse's aerie. It was still a shock when I suddenly remember entering a fight to help out Piers, Jenna, and… Felix here._

_That (as much as I wanted to remember) wasn't part of the immediate problem my priority was finding Ivan and getting help before I was killed._

"_Ivan? Are you there? M—mom… said that I could find you here so you must be here," I called out._

_There was no response for a moment, so I decided to take a look around the aerie. When I walked around to the other side of the beacon I stopped and stared. Standing there was Ivan (Thank the elements) and someone else. _

_A woman with long purple hair in one large braid was standing and speaking_

_with Ivan. She was tall and slim and was wearing a white robe with purple zigzags on it. She had Ivan's mouth and nose and the general shape of her face was the same as Ivan's but her eyes were very different. While Ivan's eyes always carried a lively, intelligent spark, her eyes looked old, and fatigued, but her face was so young looking, it was unnerving._

_I stood watching them talking for a moment before the woman got this suspicious look on her face. She started looking around like she sensed something or someone. I was probably that something, so without a second thought I ducked behind a statue._

_Boots clicked against the tiled flooring and a head appeared around the statue and looked straight at me._

_"Sheba?" The woman asked me in surprise._

_"Who—who are you?" I asked in response. Her eyes took on a more sympathetic look. She took my arm and pulled me towards where Ivan was standing._

_Ivan's eyes widened when he saw me._

_"Sheba! You're okay!" Ivan said excitedly. Without a warning he pulled me into a hug and sighed quietly. "You are so much trouble."_

_I pulled back a little and turned towards the woman standing and watching us with a small smile on her face._

_"Who are you?" I repeated._

_The woman straight into my eyes and with a voice of melody answered, "I am Hamma, descendent of Anemous."_


	20. Chapter 20

_I blinked my eyes at the woman standing in front of me. For some reason I had a faint, almost non-existent memory of a pretty purple haired woman smiling at me._

_"Hamma?" I said quietly to myself. I kept trying to remember._

_It hit my like a ton of stones. This was my mentor! I pulled away from Ivan's embrace and threw my arms around Hamma._

_"Hamma! You're here! I can't believe you're actually here! I missed you so much," I was practically shrieking with happiness._

_"It's good to see you too, Sheba. You've grown so beautiful in these past few years," Hamma answered while returning my hug._

_I stepped back to look at her again. Memories of her were flooding back to me, but she didn't look at all as tired in my memories as she did now. She looked like she had aged 20 years while I had aged 2._

_"Hamma, you look so…" _

_"Old? Yes, I know. It's because I've spent too many nights fretting over you," She turned and looked at Ivan. "And Ivan. I promise you, when we next see each other; I won't look quite so old. I'm only 31 thank you."_

_I laughed. That's my old master. "I'll hold you to that. Now about my… um… predicament…"_

_Ivan looked at me, his eyes serious and almost panicked. I winced._

_"Sheba…This predicament better not mean that what Hamma is saying is true."_

_"What?!" Hamma exclaimed. "You don't trust your own sister?"_

_I ignored her. "If she said anything about Alex capturing me…It's true."_

_Ivan's face went pale. "Oh, you have got to be kidding me. How much trouble can you get yourself into?" He whispered as he pulled me back into the hug._

_"I'm sorry," I answered quietly, returning the hug. "I didn't know what was going on. He just suddenly showed up and kidnapped me. I'm being held in a barn of some sort."_

_"A barn…Don't worry Sheba. We'll find you," Ivan said quietly._

_"I hate being the 'damsel in distress', but I have no doubt in my mind that you'll come for me."_

_"I hate to break up this happy moment," Hamma said, "But time is of the essence. I don't know for how much longer I can hold up this illusion and as it is Sheba's already weak."_

_"She's right. I'm going to have to leave now, I trust you Ivan. You'll find me." I turned and felt the world around crumbling away from me._

I woke up, feeling even weaker than before I fell asleep. I wanted to cry out, but that took way to much energy. All I could muster was a weak groan. I heard the thump of boots on the ground. I turned my head trying to find the source and found Alex's shadow falling over me.

He grabbed my hair to hold my head up and looked into my eyes.

"You do know that it's bad manners to fall asleep when someone's talking to you, right?"

I groaned and gave a weak tug of head, trying to get away from his grasp. "I don't care," I practically whispered. "Just let me go…"

"I doubt that's going to happen anytime soon. You haven't a prayer of a chance to get away. You're young, inexperienced, and drained so badly that you can barely hold your head up."

He let go of my hair and my head dropped down onto the dingy floor of the barn. While I landed on a pile of rather soft hay, the force still gave me a splitting headache. I whimpered, just slightly, but Alex must have heard because he turned around.

"Aw, poor baby. Do you need your stuffed bear to cuddle with?"

I answered by saying something rather…rude. Alex slapped me, and then turned to leave the barn.

When he opened the barn door he surprised to see a group of seven standing there. I could just barely make out the outline of Ivan, Felix and the others.

"The cavalry has arrived," I said struggling to sit up. "Game's over Alex. You lose."


	21. Chapter 21

_**Author's notes: The first and probably only time I plan to do this. I've really enjoyed writing this story. If you can believe it, this is my first fan fiction, and I'm a mere 13 years old. I truly appreciate all the comments, praise, and advise I have gotten from this story alone. When I got that comment from bobbyneko and IsaacGaretMia, I felt a surge of…I don't know what. Happiness? Pride? Oh, who knows but it felt good. Thank you so much. This isn't the last chapter, so don't cry yet. **_

Alex looked back and forth from me to the group standing in the opening. I could almost feel the surprise in him. I was feeling pretty good about myself and the others until Alex jumped back behind me and calmly put a sword to my throat. I let out a sound like a strangled goose.

"I wouldn't try anything if I were you. Who knows what could happen to your precious little princess, right?"

"Let go of her Alex! She has nothing to do with this! You wanted all the power in the world and got half, I'm the other half!" Isaac said sharply.

"Oh, contraire. While Sheba doesn't have the other half of alchemy she does have and unimaginable power in her. She can dream seer to the extent of someone no knowing what is reality and what is a dream."

What is he talking about? I can just send messages and meet people in my dreams right?

"What does that have to with any of your plans?" Piers very calmly considering the situation I was in.

"Why, she could easily kill all you off right now if she wanted to. Too bad, though. She wouldn't be able to kill off the man she's in love with."

"Shut…up…!" I hissed. Why didn't I want them to know? What was wrong with me, caring more about them not knowing who I had feelings for? I trusted them after all.

"Oh?" Alex looked down at me and smiled wryly. "She really didn't say anything."

I squirmed in his grasp trying to wriggle away from the sword that was just too close to my throat for comfort. My eyes flicked toward Ivan, he was looking at me in a strange way. Kinds of worry, fear, and…hurt. Like someone had just broken his heart.

"Alex! Please, it doesn't have to be this way! You're part of the Mercury Clan, for Weyard's sake! We don't create conflict, we help stop it," Mia's voice was desperate; she collapsed to the ground in tears.

"Ah, dear Mia. As I told you on the Mercury Lighthouse aerie, I'm not the same Alex you once knew."

"I suppose that's the only time you really told the truth," Mia began in a whisper that became stronger with every word. "I was in love with the Alex you once were," She stood up using her staff as a support. "But just as you aren't the Alex I once knew… I'm not the Mia **you** once knew!"

Mia lifted up her staff slowly, then moved it in a graceful arch and pointed at Alex.

"This ends today, Alex. I'm tired of being the one left behind hurting." Huge jagged shards of ice were rotating around Alex and me. I could guess what was about to happen, and if I was still near Alex in the next two seconds, I was going to be mince meat with him.

I elbowed him in the stomach and his grip on me loosened. Using the last bit of energy I had left jumped away from him just as the ice converged on him like a pack of hungry wolves after a deer.

I thought I would land a few inches from Piers, but I misjudged the distance and ended up landing right on top of him. At the same time I could hear the fight beginning.

"Sorry." I apologized as I climbed off him.

"It's okay, as long as you are alright. But, why did you aim in this direction, I thought you would much rather be in this same situation with your dearly beloved over there," Piers pointed directly at Ivan and winked at me.

I blushed up a storm and attempted to stand up only to fall down out of exhaustion. Piers put his hand to my forehead to use Pure Ply on me.

"Careful. You must be quite tired."

"Yeah," I sighed feeling better already. I wish Jupiter Adepts had powers like these.

When he was finished I turned to look at the battle raging. I watched as Isaac used a Djinn and both he and Jenna attacked at once.

Mia was murmuring something to herself for a moment before a huge geyser appeared and sent Alex skyward. Ivan used Plasma and shocked him. It was too much for Alex to take. All the power in the world couldn't help you take a beating from seven (Piers had joined the fray) experienced adepts.

Might as well make it eight, I drew my bow and aimed at higher angle. I gauged the angle and the distance I was from Alex. A rain of thunder arrows would make him one unhappy man, but the blast radius was large. I ran the risk of injuring my friends if I didn't warn them.

"Move, everyone!" I shouted at the top of my lungs, and let the arrow fly.

The others looked up and seeing the single arrow split into about thirty, they jumped backwards. The arrows converged on him.

When the smoke and dust had cleared, I saw a sizzling body in the middle of burning hay. Alex still managed to sit up.

"If I'm going to go down," He said quietly, picking up his sword as if it was a throwing knife. "I'm taking someone down with me!" He threw the sword…right at Ivan.

I didn't even think about it. I lunged in front of Ivan screaming "NOOO!"

The sword went right through my back and came out my stomach. I felt it pierce my skin. I was looking into Ivan's beautiful amethyst eyes, wide with shock, as I smiled at him, for what I thought must be the final time. Now or never.

"I…love…you."

Then nothing but blood. So…much…blood.

**"SHEBA!!"**


	22. Chapter 22

I felt as if I was floating in the water. Darkness rippled around me as if I was deep below sea.

Where was I? I tried to remember where I was and why I was here. Memories began to flow back slowly, but they didn't make much sense.

It hit me.

Death is very peaceful. Calmingly quiet after all of the noise of life.

I'm sad that I'm dead. There's so much that I haven't accomplished. But at the same time, I have absolutely no regrets. I did what I needed to protect the person that I loved.

I opened my eyes to stare up at a shockingly blue sky. I sat up and noticed that I was wearing a snow white robe. I sat in meadow of green grass and a million different types of flowers. A cool breeze rustled the grass around me. The place was beautiful, yet at the same time I had the oddest feeling of nostalgia.

"Sheba." I jumped up and turned around, to the beautiful woman that I had seen in on of my dreamscapes. Two other hooded figures stood beside her.

"Welcome, Sheba."

"Mom, and…" The two others removed their hoods and smiled at me. One was a man in his early 30's with dark purple hair, the other, a girl, stood beside him was about 12 years old. Her hair was a very pale purple, almost silver.

"My name is Zebulon," the man rumbled in a deep voice.

"And, mine is Evangel. I'm the sister you never got to meet. And this is our mom and dad."

I looked at them in surprise. Tears began to well up in my eyes. "My real mom and dad. A sister I never knew I had."

"Yes, my dear. We've met before, but I never introduced myself. I'm Dinah."

I nodded. Still in shock, I reached out to touch her, but she stepped back quickly.

"Love, you have to make a choice. I want you to be happy, and if your happiness is back in earth, then don't touch us. As soon as you touch us you will fully die. Right now, you're kind of in limbo. Neither dead nor alive. All you need to do is make a choice. Do you want to stay here or do you wish to return?"

"It will be a long and painful process. There will many more hardships to come. Many more choices," Evangel said quietly.

"But if you choose to come with us, you will be relieved of all the stress, all the responsibility. All the heartache," Zebulon continued.

"Make your choice dear. And know that no matter what that choice is, we'll stand by you."

I watched as a misty screen appeared. An image of my body appeared, and there was someone whose head was on my torso. Crying.

Ivan.

I turned back to them and looked them in the eye quietly and said, "You have no idea what this meeting means to me. I've dreamed of this day all my life," There eyes lit up. "But, I belong on Weyard, where He is."

My mother nodded. "We understand. If I were you, I would have made the same choice." They turned around and began to walk away. Just as everything began to become hazy to me, Mom turned around and blew me a kiss. "I love you my dear. We all do. Including the boy you're returning to. Remember that."

* * *

I felt as if I were surfacing from deep below the water. The outrageous pain came in one huge burst. I gasped for air, and that just made the pain worsen.

A short sharp gasp was made near me. I turned my head ever so slightly towards the sound. Ivan was staring at me with shock and wonder in his eyes.

"Sheba…?" His beautiful eyes burned into mine.

"Hey," I whispered hoarsely. "Sorry to have worried you."

"MIA!" He yelled. A flash of blue entered my small window of vision. I could hear more footsteps coming behind hers.

"Ivan? What's wrong?"

"You…she…Ply…Use…Now!" He spluttered.

"Ivan, you know that won't do any good now. She's gone," Mia murmured quietly.

"You don't get it! She's okay! Look she's breathing!" Ivan said all in one breathe. Mia looked over his shoulder at me. The others stopped running when they got closer to us.

"What are…? OH! Holy Mercury! She's awake!" Mia knelt beside me and started using Pure Ply.

"Come on Sheba. You have stay with us…Keep fighting!"

"What's going on?" I heard Felix's voice ask.

"It's Sheba! She's awake."

"Really?! Guys! Sheba's awake! She's okay!" A chorus of happy replies sounded.

"Yes!"

"The squirt's okay?!"

"Don't call her squirt! Thank the elements she's alright."

"Whew. I don't think I've been that scared or upset in my life."

I chuckled weakly. "Sorry to be a bother."

"Just go to sleep, Sheba. We'll have you in a sanctum soon," Mia said softly.

I followed the order and quickly drifted into a quiet, dreamless sleep.

* * *

I woke up to a much nicer environment than I was used to. I was in a soft bed and it was warm. I, for the first time in what seemed like forever, was comfortable.

I tried sitting up and found that I could almost do it without screaming in pain. Of course the only screech I made alerted someone because the next thing I know the bedroom door is flying open.

"Sheba!" Ivan was by my side holding my hand in an instant.

"Don't worry. I'm okay. I tried to sit up."

"You won't be able to, for at least a week," he answered.

"How am I not surprised?"

We sat in silence for sometime after that until I noticed Ivan's face turn a bit red.

"What is it?" I asked in casual tone, though I could feel my heart beginning to beat a bit faster.

"Well…you said…last week…"

Last week? I had been out that long?!

"Last week?"

"Yeah, you've been in recovery for about a week now."

"Oh…um…what did you want to say? What did I say?"

"You said, right after the sword went through your back, before you collapsed. You said 'I love you.' To me."

"I did. And?" I gestured for him to continue.

"And what?" I answered by looking at him in confusion.

"Well you don't just go around saying that to anyone!" Ivan snapped. Then said much more quietly. "Did you mean it?"

"Of course I did." I said as quietly.

"Hmm. Then you wouldn't mind if I…" Ivan leaned closer and closer to my face.

I could feel the heat rise quickly to my face. I slowly shut my eyes and tried not faint.

"Hey Ivan! Where are you?!" I heard Garet's obnoxious voice carry down the hallway. I opened my eyes just as Ivan stiffened.

"Oh! There you are. Hey, I'm not interrupting anything am I?"

I stifled a giggle as Ivan slowly straightened up and walked to the door that Garet was standing in and slammed it in his face.

"Hey!" Garet protested.

"Good-bye Garet!" Ivan answered. He walked back over to me and leaned down and pressed his lips to mine. His lips parted just slightly and mine were forced to do the same. I could tasted his warm breath.

It was a very sweet kiss. I could have stayed like that forever.

Ivan pulled away. I opened my eyes and looked at him. He smiled at me. "I love you too." was all he said then turned and walked out of the room, shutting the door behind him.


	23. Chapter 23

_Papa,_

_It's amazing how fast a year seems to pass. Oh yes, it has been a year since that disaster._

_You see, I would tell you about everything that happened in the past year, but all of that is rather boring. To sum it up, Ivan and I went back to Contigo via Piers ship, he took Jenna, Isaac, and Felix back to Vale, and Garet decided to give living in Imil a chance so he could stay with Mia. Piers himself went back to Lumeria, but he visits Hamma, Ivan and I from time to time_

_About Ivan…well I guess you could say that were an official couple now. JUST boyfriend and girlfriend as of right now, of course. We're only 17 and 18. So don't worry. Unlike Felix and Fay, who are now__** married**__. The other two couples are getting serious, or at the letters I get from Mia and Jenna say that they are._

_I'm happy for all of them, honestly. I'm not jealous…Okay, maybe just a little bit, but I'll be patient. Don't worry!_

_I've been training really hard with Hamma, and I've almost become a master wind mage. We even have a new Jupiter adept who can train with us. She's still a child but, for someone so young she extremely powerful. _

_Her name is Evangeline. She's only 6 years old, but she can already create a tornado with no problem. We have no idea where and when she got her powers, but were all glad to have her with us._

_To be honest, there really not much to report to you, and the rest of the staff back there in Lalivero._

_I know that you miss me and all, but I'm well, Papa. I really am. I know that your not my really dad, but you've always acted as if you were one, so for now and forever, I will call you Papa. I'll keep in touch._

_Your Loving Daughter,_

_Sheba_

I finished writing the letter as Ivan came into the room, his blond hair fell in a limp heap around his slightly sweaty face. He walked over to the desk I was seated at and leaned down and kissed my cheek.

"Hey. What're you up to?"

I smiled up at him. "Just finishing a letter to Papa."

"Oh? What does it say?" He tried to swipe the letter away from me but I quickly snatched it away from his grasp.

"It's between father and daughter so it's not any of your business!" I answered as I rolled the piece of paper up and tied it with a ribbon. In all honesty, it just didn't want him to see the part about me being jealous. Who knows what he might say.

He pouted a little and I laughed. "Don't give me that look. You don't let me see the letters you send to Isaac and company."

"Because it's guy stuff. Nothing you ever need to worry about," He muttered

"Hmmm." I leaned in and pressed my lips against his. I pulled away and smiled. "Better now?"

"A little."

"Thought so." I got up and brushed my purple robe as if it had dirt on it which it didn't. (I'm impeccably clean.) "I'm going to go and find Hamma and Evangeline."

"Alright. But be careful. Evangeline is starting to learn the different plasmas, and she can't quite control it."

"No worries. I'll be just fine." I flashed Ivan a smile. "After all, I'm the lightning mage."

"True, but I'm your boyfriend after all, I'm supposed to be unnecessarily worried about you, and I am."

I smiled, turned toward the door and walked out into the warm, bright Contigan sunshine.

As I walked and greeted people on my way to the training grounds, I thought about how I'd finally found the place where I belong.

"Sheba, wait up!" Ivan panted as he ran to catch up with me. "I thought about it and said that I might as well come with you." He slipped his hand into mine and grinned as he began tugging me along. "C'mon!"

A place where I belong, and a person to whom my heart belonged. I'd finally found both.

_** .:The End:.**_

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**And so our story comes to a close. I'm so sad that it's over, but at the same time I'm happy as well, because this is the first story that I've seen all the way through. It makes me really happy. I thank all the people who have watched Sheba and Ivan's relationship progress through out the story and have reviewed. You've really made this special.**

**If you've read the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series check out my new story The Only One. I'd also like to wish everyone a Happy New Year! Goodbye 2008, hello 2009!**

**This has been Stardust897. Signing out.**


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